In the Heaven of Legal Concepts

In 1884 the jurist Rudolf von Jhering published Scherz und Ernst in der Jurisprudenz, jest and earnest in jurisprudence. Its third part is called Im juristischen Begriffshimmel, in the heaven of legal concepts. Hier leben die Begriffe sich selber. Here the concepts live for themselves. One line reads: Das Leben, an welches Du denkst, ist gleichbedeutend mit dem Tod der wahren Wissenschaft. The life you are thinking of means the death of true science.

Jhering coined the word Begriffsjurisprudenz, jurisprudence of concepts, for law derived from concepts. A 2009 edition of the book says it marks the step von der Begriffsjurisprudenz zur heute herrschenden Wertungsjurisprudenz, from the jurisprudence of concepts to the jurisprudence of values that prevails today.

The same edition calls the jurisprudence of concepts die ständige Versuchung auch des modernen Juristen, the constant temptation of the modern jurist as well.

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