Mr. von Mohl’s Term of Art
Keyword(s):
Long Run
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The German idea of the Rechtsstaat has revolutionary origins. Robert von Mohl crafted it under the influence of the Enlightenment. This chapter tells a brief history of the idea of the Rechtsstaat in Germany. It traces the evolution of the term from its emergence in the late eighteenth century until 1933. Its intellectual trajectory raises questions about the long-run consequences of legal development in modern Germany. It sets the stage for the analysis in the next chapter of the term’s manipulation by legal theorists in Nazi Germany.