| | H-Net Review: Benjamin Carter Hett on Mörder, Diebe, Räuber: Historische Betrachtung des deutschen Strafrechts von ... |
 | | In a similar vein he quotes Wolfgang Sellert, remarking that "Rechtskrisen entstehen in der Regel, wenn sich die bestehende Rechtsordnung und die Lebenswirklichkeit nicht mehr im Gleichgewicht befinden; wenn alte gemeinsame Rechtsüberzeugungen brüchig geworden sind und nicht mehr dazu taugen, die Lebenswirklichkeit zu bewältigen; wenn also die Balance zwischen Sollen und Sein gestört ist" (p. |
 | | As a theoretical position statements like this come trailing clouds not only of German historicism and the "sociological jurisprudence" of Eugen Ehrlich, but also the much more insidious neo-Hegelian jurisprudence of Karl Larenz and others in the National Socialist 1930s, though in all fairness Geus seems not to be aware of these theoretical stakes. |
 | | The more serious problem with this kind of analysis--with the realities of life taken as some kind of given, and convictions about law defined independently of the interests of various social fractions--is that it leaves out, or rather suppresses, the crucial question for the historian: "who/whom." |
| www.h-net.msu.edu /reviews/showrev.cgi?path=50321131137536 (1334 words) |