Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

USUS MODERNUS PANDECTARUM: RÖMISCHES RECHT, DEUTSCHES RECHT UND NATURRECHT IN DER FRÜHEN NEUZEIT. Ed by Hans-Peter Haferkamp and Tilman Repgen Köln, Weimar & Wien: Böhlau Verlag, Rechtsgeschichtliche Schriften 24, 2007. viii and 339 pp. ISBN 9783412236069. 46.90.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.3366/E1364980908220482
AuthorW M Gordon
Date01 May 2008
Pages331-333
Published date01 May 2008

The main title of this book, Usus Modernus Pandectarum, might suggest a systematic account of the period in the history of the use of Roman Law as part of the ius commune that is commonly so designated. The sub-title would then indicate the particular treatment of the interrelationship of the bodies of law that were interwoven within German territory in the period running roughly from 1500 to 1800. In fact the book is a Festschrift honouring Klaus Luig on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, put together in an unusual but very sensible way. The contributions derive from papers presented at a symposium in which Luig himself took part, and the common theme is one that he has made his own, with his most important articles being published in 1998 in the series Bibliotheca Eruditorum under the title Römisches Recht, Naturrecht, Nationales Recht. He is, of course, well-known to Scottish legal historians for his interest in and contributions to Scottish legal history but, although this interest finds mention, there is no reference to the English version of his study of institutional writings published in the Juridical Review in 1972. The focus is clearly on Germany and Luig's German colleagues, as indeed the subtitle indicates.

There are thirteen contributions in all and, as they are arranged in the alphabetical order of the names of the contributors, it cannot be said that pride of place is given to that by Reinhard Zimmermann on innkeepers' liability in Germany (271-339). It is nevertheless considerably longer than any of the others and is basically the text of his article for the third volume of the Historisch-kritisches Kommentar zum BGB, of which the first two volumes appeared in 2003 and 2007, and in which Klaus Luig has taken a great interest since its conception. What had been a sketch at the symposium is extended with a brief introduction explaining the context and a postscript on the particular issues discussed in the usus modernus and their fate in the BGB and the special law of 1966 which now regulates the matter. Zimmermann is not alone in breaking the temporal boundaries. Tilman Repgen, one of the editors, gives an outline of the history of the ius commune with a select bibliography instead of footnotes (151-173); Jan Schröder discusses views on the theoretical basis of customary law in the period 1850-1930 (219-244); and Norbert Horn (45-62) moves from utilitarianism in Thomasius and Wolff to a critique of modern libertarian and economic...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT