The formation of legal unification in Germany in the 19th century: With particular regard to the influence of the Thibaut-Savigny-Controversy

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Law - Philosophy, History and Sociology of Law, grade: 1,0, , course: Legal History, language: English, comment: Die Seminararbeit wurde in englischer Sprache im Rahmen der Veranstaltung "Legal History" während meines Auslandssemesters verfasst. Sie wurde mit 30/30 Punkten bewertet. Kerninhalt ist die Problematik der Schaffung einer einheitlichen rechtlichen Ordnung in den territorialen deutschen Staaten, die lange Zeit noch mit ihren eigenen Gesetzen arbeiteten. Hierbei wird besonderes Augenmerk auf den Rechtsstreit von zwei der herausragendsten Juristen deutscher Rechtsgeschichte - Savigny und Thibaut - gelegt. , abstract: Thibaut and Savigny - this line up has been adopted in the historical books as one oft he most re- marquable and pathbreaking academical disputes in the history of Germany's jurisprudence. These two highly respected and famous jurists fought about the necessity of a general civil law for the German Empire. Thibaut published his ideas on this matter of dispute in his pamphlet ?On the necessity of a General Civil Law in Germany" in 1814 on which Savigny responded in the very same year putting his outstanding argumentation against the need of a general civil law in his pamphlet ?On the Vocation of our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence". Such being the case will make it also necessary to review the proceedings in the deepness of the 19th century to be aware of the importance of the controversy for the legal development in Germany. Regarding the fact that a general civil code in Germany wasn't published until 1900 Savigny might be seen as the winner of the dispute since he achieved to delay the unification for more than 80 years alt- hough the number of supporters on Thibaut's opinion was noticeably larger. A more particular investigation on this shall follow later. The controversy was also the initial point for theories and doctrines that manifestly influenced the jurisprudence in the 19th century