Otto von Gierke on the Dispute between Germanism and Romanism in the German Historic Law School

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the phenomenon of the German historic law school as perceived by Otto von Gierke, the German historian and theorist of law. This perspective is an interesting one as the Berlin professor was also a participant of the events which are commented on in the article (at their finals stages); however, it only partially influenced his objectivity. Moreover, the fresh and almost direct outlook of the German thinker is quite valuable.

The Author of the article describes the genesis and evolution of the school, which, in fact, was a contamination of two trends of legal reflection: Romanism and Germanism. In different periods those two schools remained both in symbiotic relationships and (more often) in furious struggles, undermining the initial unity of Historische Rechtsschule. Both were important in the history of German legal reflection. The final shape of the central German codification of private law – BGB – was the result of the internal tensions within this school. The article presents these occurrences and sums up the results of Polish research on Gierke and the German Historical School.