Rudolf Stammler

Rudolf Stammler (born February 19, 1856, Alsfeld, Hesse [Germany]—died April 25, 1938, Wernigerode, Germany) was a German jurist and teacher who is considered to be one of the most influential legal philosophers of the early 20th century.

Stammler was a professor of law at Marburg (1882–84), Giessen (1884), Halle (1885–1916), and Berlin (1916–23) universities. By distinguishing the concept of law, which is purely formal, from the ideal of law, which is the realization of justice, he emphasized, unlike most 19th-century legal philosophers, the search for a theoretically valid ideal of justice with which law ought to conform. That ideal, in Stammler’s view, was not immutable but reflected the degree of social harmony possible in a particular place and time. One of his major works, Die Lehre von dem richtigen Rechte (1902), was translated by Isaac Husik as The Theory of Justice (1925).