Exploring legal tradition: psychoanalytical theory and Roman law in modern continental jurisprudence

Legal Studies ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Duxbury

The idea that psychoanalysis might be of use in the study oflaw and legal activity is by no means anything new. At the beginning of this century, the Russo-Polish jurist Leon Petrazycki proposed a theory of legal psychology, arguing that law, as an intuitively intelligible component of the human mental process, is in essence constituted by individual feelings of moral obligation and responsibility. Around the same time, psychoanalytical theory was beginning to make a slight impact on American and European jurisprudential thinking. This impact was to become all the more significant when, in the 1930s, Thurman Arnold and Jerome Frank presented arguments about the nature oflegal reasoning, and the roles of both academic lawyers and judges, which were very clearly founded upon broad interpretations of psychoanalytic ideas and concepts. In the continental tradition, Hans Kelsen, though in his early work drawing a distinction ‘between pure legal theory and psychological-sociological speculation,’ nevertheless attempted on occasion to conceive of the sovereignty of the state in Freudian psychoanalytic terms

Author(s):  
Emilios Christodoulidis ◽  
Johan van der Walt

This chapter traces the tradition of critical theory in Europe in the way it has informed and framed legal thought. A key, and distinctive, element of this legal tradition is that it characteristically connects to the state as constitutive reference; in other words it understands the institution of law as that which organizes and mediates the relation of the state to civil society. The other constitutive reference is political economy, a reference that typically grounds this tradition of thinking about the law in the materiality of the practices of social production and reproduction. It is in these connections, of the institution of law to the domains of the state and of the political economy, that critical legal theory locates the function of law, and the emancipatory potentially it affords on the one hand, and the obstacles to emancipation it imposes, on the other.


SEEU Review ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-144
Author(s):  
Sami Mehmeti

Abstract Magna Carta is one of the most important illustrations of the exceptionalism of English common law. Within a completely feudal framework it gave the clearest possible articulation to the concept of the rule of law and at the same time it also showed that there were certain basic rights which every freeman enjoyed without any specific conferment by the king. From English perspective, continental European law after the process of the reception of Roman law was commonly regarded to be apart and different from the English legal tradition, as well as being perceived to pose a continual threat. The English Parliament constantly turned down royal attempts to emulate the continental reception of Roman law by characterizing it as something entirely foreign to English law. Roman law was supposed to promote an authoritarian and absolutist vision of the relationship between rule and subjection and this was expressed in the famous phrases 'princeps legibus solutus' and 'quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem'. Roman law was also anti-feudal, because one of its main principles that all power originated from one central source was the antithesis of the distribution of power over multiple centers, which was a crucial element of the feudal society. Many English historians have held the view that the English law is democratic, whereas the continental tradition is undemocratic and authoritarian, and this is why the Roman law succeeded on the Continent and failed in England.


2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52
Author(s):  
Z.E. Benevolenskaya

AbstractThe reader of this work is offered two theses by the author: Firstly, the myopic focus on the privatization in the early 1990s reflected the general view that this was the 'only' way to divest the state of property. Because of the predominance of this policy, the state—as an owner—has been deprived of the possibility of managing state property efficiently and effectively in another way short of total divestiture of ownership; i.e., transferring state-owned assets by way of a trust (trust agreement, trust management) to professional mangers. Secondly, that the trust doctrine is not totally alien to Russian legal tradition as many renowned Russian law thinkers argued in the 1990s for example and continue to believe to this day. Indeed, the issue of whether or not the trust doctrine—as a construct involving 'split' ownership—can be 'transplanted' into Russian legal soil has been a particularly contentious part of law reform in post-Soviet Russia continuing through the present. After highlighting the 'rush to privatization' mentality in Russia, the author of the present article takes the reader into nineteenth-century Russian legal theory as she demonstrates that trust is not alien to Russia. She also traces this clear thread through the Soviet era by reference to the works of one of its leading intellectual lights in the civil-law field of that time. In the post-Soviet era, trust has already been explicitly introduced (in the first decade of the twenty-first century) into the legal space immediately bordering the Russian Federation: the new Ukrainian Civil Code. These historical digressions should help the reader appreciate more clearly the proposed 2010/2011 amendments to the Russian Civil Code. It is the view of the present author that these proposals pave the way for the recognition of the doctrine of trust in modern-day Russian law—augmenting the more limited nature of the institute of 'trust management' currently provided for under the Russian Civil Code.


Politeja ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3(72)) ◽  
pp. 175-191
Author(s):  
Tomasz Widłak

This article offers an analysis of the meaning of the term ‘world state’ (Weltstaat) as used by Hans Kelsen in his work on international legal theory. The author argues that Kelsen understands the term solely as a legal concept. Reconstruction of Kelsen’s understanding of the notion of world state begins with a summary of Kelsen’s reductionist doctrine of the state and its identity with law. Secondly, the analysis moves to Kelsen’s radical deconstruction of sovereignty. Thirdly, Kelsen’s doctrine of evolution of legal orders along the axis of centralization is considered. These considerations lead to the assertion that Kelsen’s Weltstaat shows in fact more affinity with the concept of the international community rather than a fully-fledged state. The article concludes that Kelsen’s world state is only a theoretical possibility, a stage in the evolution of legal orders and a common point of imputation rather than a manifestation of any cosmopolitan agenda.


Author(s):  
Ю. М. Оборотов

В современной методологии юриспруденции происходит переход от изучения состо­яний ее объекта, которыми выступают право и государство, к постижению этого объек­та в его изменениях и превращениях. Две подсистемы методологии юриспруденции, подсистема обращенная к состоянию права и государства; и подсистема обращенная к изменениям права и государства, — получают свое отображение в концептуальной форме, методологических подходах, методах, специфических понятиях. Показательны перемены в содержании методологии юриспруденции, где определяю­щее значение имеют методологические подходы, определяющие стратегию исследова­тельских поисков во взаимосвязи юриспруденции с правом и государством. Среди наи­более характерных подходов антропологический, аксиологический, цивилизационный, синергетический и герменевтический — определяют плюралистичность современной методологии и свидетельствуют о становлении новой парадигмы методологии юриспру­денции.   In modern methodology of jurisprudence there is a transition from the study the states of its object to its comprehension in changes and transformations. Hence the two subsystems of methodology of jurisprudence: subsystem facing the states of the law and the state as well as their components and aspects; and subsystem facing the changes of the law and the state in general and their constituents. These subsystems of methodology of jurisprudence receive its reflection in conceptual form, methodological approaches, methods, specific concepts. Methodology of jurisprudence should not be restricted to the methodology of legal theory. In this regard, it is an important methodological question about subject of jurisprudence. It is proposed to consider the subject of jurisprudence as complex, covering both the law and the state in their specificity, interaction and integrity. Indicative changes in the content methodology of jurisprudence are the usage of decisive importance methodological approaches that govern research strategy searches in conjunction with the law and the state. Among the most characteristic of modern development approaches: anthropological, axiological, civilization, synergistic and hermeneutic. Modern methodology of jurisprudence is pluralistic in nature alleging various approaches to the law and the state. Marked approaches allow the formation of a new paradigm methodology of jurisprudence.


Author(s):  
Yogi Maron ◽  
Ismansyah Ismansyah ◽  
Azmi Fendri

<p align="center"> </p><p><em>As happened to the Notary Eli SatriaPilo, S.H, Mkn, who was appointed as the Notary who made the Deed of Relinquishment of Land Rights in the Land Acquisition activities for the Construction of Campus III of the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Padang which was located in Sungai Bangek District, Padang</em><em> </em><em>in 2010. The method used was descriptive, in which describing the applicable legislation associated with legal theory in the facts and realities about the Notary’s Responsibility in Making Deed of Land Acquisition for the construction of Campus III of IAIN Padang in Sungai</em><em> </em><em>Bangek. This study used a Normative Juridical approach, in which researching by using and processing secondary data or literature related to the</em><em> </em><em>study. The data collected were in the form of primary data obtained from the District Court of Padang, secondary data obtained from secondary legal materials and primary legal materials. Based on the study, it was found that the role of Notary Eli</em><em> </em><em>Satria</em><em> </em><em>Pilo, in the land acquisition of campus III IAIN was proven to have misused the authority resulting in violation of the Notary Ethics Code and was responsible for accepting termination disrespectfully. Furthermore, he was also shown to be committing a Criminal Corruption made based on the Deed of Relinquishment of Land Rights in the land acquisition for the construction of Campus III of IAIN Padang, so that the State incurred losses of Rp. 1</em><em>.</em><em>946</em><em>.</em><em>701</em><em>.</em><em>050 (one billion nine hundred forty-six million seven hundred one thousand and fifty rupiahs). And he was responsible for receiving and carrying out the sentence that had been handed down by the District Court of Padang, a prison sentence of 4 (four) years, and paying a fine of Rp. 200</em><em>.</em><em>000</em><em>.</em><em>000 (two hundred million rupiahs)</em><em>.</em></p><p> </p>


Author(s):  
Will Smiley

This chapter charts the “Law of Release,” a new system of rules that replaced the Law of Ransom. These rules were based on treaties signed from 1739 onward, but also on a variety of lesser agreements and unwritten understandings and the Islamic legal tradition. They were renewed frequently, and structured captivity as late as the 1850s. This chapter will explore the basic structures of the Law of Release—how captives were found, released, and sent home, and how slaveowners were convinced, coerced, or compensated to cooperate. I argue that while release was initially limited to Istanbul, and to the most visible captives, it extended both into elite households, and outward along the Ottoman corridors of power. This process tested the limits of the Ottoman state, forcing the state to cooperate with Russian officials for the benefit of both. They did so in the face of resistance from captors.


ORDO ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (70) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Cameron Harwick ◽  
Hilton Root

AbstractThis paper draws a distinction between ‘communitarian’ and ‘rationalist’ legal orders on the basis of the implied political strategy. We argue that the West’s solution to the paradox of governance – that a government strong enough to protect rights cannot itself be restrained from violating those rights – originates in certain aspects of the feudal contract, a confluence of aspects of communitarian Germanic law, which enshrined a contractual notion of political authority, and rationalistic Roman law, which supported large-scale political organization. We trace the tradition of strong but limited government to the conflict between factions with an interest in these legal traditions – nobles and the crown, respectively – and draw limited conclusions for legal development in non-Western contexts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Samson

The informal economy is typically understood as being outside the law. However, this article develops the concept ‘social uses of the law’ to interrogate how informal workers understand, engage and deploy the law, facilitating the development of more nuanced theorizations of both the informal economy and the law. The article explores how a legal victory over the Johannesburg Council by reclaimers of reusable and recyclable materials at the Marie Louise landfill in Soweto, South Africa shaped their subjectivities and became bound up in struggles between reclaimers at the dump. Engaging with critical legal theory, the author argues that in a social world where most people do not read, understand, or cite court rulings, the ‘social uses of the law’ can be of greater import than the actual judgement. This does not, however, render the state absent, as the assertion that the court sanctioned particular claims and rights is central to the reclaimers’ social uses of the law. Through the social uses of the law, these reclaimers force us to consider how and why the law, one of the cornerstones of state formation, cannot be separated from the informal ways it is understood and deployed. The article concludes by sketching a research agenda that can assist in developing a more relational understanding of the law and the informal economy.


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