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Justifying private property rights: a message from Hegel's jurisprudential writings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Michael Salter
Michael Salter*
Affiliation:
Magee College, University of Ulster
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Extract

This article seeks to unfold the character, scope and trajectory of justifiable property rights within Hegel’s jurisprudential writings. It does so in order to try to make this reputedly ‘difficult’ and much neglected theorist fit for undergraduate consumption on private law courses.

If we accept the need for an intelligible social theory of private law, why should lawyers consider that of Hegel? Hegel devoted his last book to a ‘Philosophy of Right. This text is, however, barely mentioned by even the more comprehensive of modern textbooks on jurisprudence. There could be little ground for complaint if such neglect of Hegel’s legal writings were based upon a fully reasoned consideration and then subsequent rejection due to certain vital and demonstrable flaws within them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , November 1987 , pp. 245 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1987

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References

1. Hegel, The Philosophy of Right; trans T. Knox, OUP, London, 1821/1952.

2. For example Jurisprudence by Dias; Butterworths, London, 1985.

3. Ryan, A., Property; Blackwell, Oxford, 1985, p 121.Google ScholarPubMed

4. Rose, G., Hegel Contra Sociology; Athlone, London, 1981, p 50.Google Scholar

5. Cf Renner, K., The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Functions; RKP, London, 1949.Google Scholar

6. Hegel, , Werke 8; Felix Meiner, Hamburg, 1976, p 249.Google Scholar

7. Hegel, Natural Law; trans Knox, T., University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1802–3/1975, pp 59–66.Google Scholar

8. Kant, , The Metaphysical Element of Justice; Library of Liberal Arts, New York, 1965, p 8.Google Scholar

9. Hegel, Natural Law, op cit, pp 71–74.

10. G. Rose, 1981, op cit, p 56.

11. Hegel, The Difference between Fichte's and Schelling's system of Philosophy; trans Harris and Knox, Albany, 1802–5/1979, p 79.

12. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 47; cf Wolff ‘On the Nature of Legal Persons’ (1938) 54 LQR 494.

13. Schacht, R. ‘Hegel on Freedom’ in Hegel — A Collection of Critical Essays; ed MacIntyre, A., Notre Dam Press, London, 1976, p 312.Google Scholar

14. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 39.

15. Ibid, ss 4, 13.

16. Ryan, op cit, p 126.

17. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 80.

18. Ibid, s 33.

19. Ibid, ss 34–8.

20. Ibid, ss 77, 204.

21. Ibid, s 44.

22. Hegel, The Difference between Ficht's and Schelling's System of Philosophy, op cit, p 79.

23. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, ss 43, 57.

24. Trans J. Sibree, NY, Dover, 1956, p 926.

25. Cf Macpherson, , Property; Blackwell, Oxford, 1978, p 201ffGoogle Scholar.

26. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 44.

27. Ibid, s 37.

28. Ibid, s 39.

29. Ibid, s 48.

50. Ibid, ss 40, 42; cf Kelsen, H., General Theory of Law and State; trans Wedberg, 1945, pp 93–109.Google Scholar

31. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 100.

32. Ibid, ss 27, 29.

33. Hegel, Jenser Realphilsophie Vol A; Leipzig, 1975, p 240.

34. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 75.

35. Ibid, ss 206, 294.

36. Ibid, ss 257–9.

37. Ibid. s 69.

38. Cf Macpherson (ed) Property, op cit, pp 201 ff.

39. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 244.

40. Ibid, s 63.

41. Ibid, s 180.

42. Ryan, Property, op cit, p 129.

43. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 80.

44. Ibid, ss 77, 204.

45. Ibid, s 44.

46. Ibid.

47. Lloyd's Introduction to Jurisprudence; Stevens, 5th edition, London, 1985, pp 953ff.

48. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, op cit, s 299.

49. Ibid, s 46.

50. Ibid, s 64.

* The author would like to acknowledge and record his thanks for the helpful comments and wise suggestions of Alan Hunt, Gillian Rose, Andrew Saunders and Professor J. A. Andrews which have greatly enriched both the detail and substance of this article.