Friedrich Karl von Savigny summary

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Friedrich Karl von Savigny, (born Feb. 21, 1779, Frankfurt am Main—died Oct. 25, 1861, Berlin, Prussia), German jurist and legal historian. He was nobly born, and his privileged position enabled him to devote his life to scholarship. Teaching at the University of Berlin (1810–42), he helped found the influential “historical school” of jurisprudence. His six-volume History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages (1815–31) laid the foundation of the modern study of medieval law. He founded a system for establishing a modern German civil law with his eight-volume System of Modern Roman Law (1840–49), which also contained his system of international private law. A product of Romanticism, he regarded law as a reflection of a people’s customs and spirit that could not be imposed artificially by means of rational, formal legislation.

Roman law Summary

Roman law, the law of ancient Rome from the time of the founding of the city in 753 bce until the fall of the Western Empire in the 5th century ce. It remained in use in the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire until 1453. As a legal system, Roman law has affected the development of law in most of Western

government Summary

Government, the political system by which a country or community is administered and regulated. Most of the key words commonly used to describe governments—words such as monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy—are of Greek or Roman origin. They have been current for more than 2,000 years and have not

Germany Summary

Germany, country of north-central Europe, traversing the continent’s main physical divisions, from the outer ranges of the Alps northward across the varied landscape of the Central German Uplands and then across the North German Plain. One of Europe’s largest countries, Germany encompasses a wide