Jour Fixe: The Federal Evolution of Imperial Germany and the Creation of the German Civil Code

Jour Fixe

  • Date: Jan 16, 2017
  • Time: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Oliver F. R. Haardt
  • University of Cambridge
  • Opponents: Philip Bajon / Philipp Schmitt, MPIeR
  • Location: MPIeR
  • Room: Z 01
Jour Fixe: The Federal Evolution of Imperial Germany and the Creation of the German Civil Code

Topic: The Federal Evolution of Imperial Germany and the Creation of the German Civil Code

Abstract

“This talk will examine Germany’s federal evolution and will explore what impact this constitutional development had on the creation of the German Civil Code (BGB). It will argue that – after the first attempt had failed in the 1870s and 1880s – the BGB was eventually adopted in the second half of the 1890s not least because by then Germany had largely changed into a centralised state that provided adequate governmental and institutional preconditions. The talk will conclude by briefly considering what these observations about the imperial German case imply for harmonisation and unification processes of civil law in present-day federal systems, most importantly in the European Union. Moreover, the talk will relate the analysis of Germany’s federal evolution to the MPI’s focus area ‘multinormativity’. It will show that the development of the German federal state was greatly shaped by the clash of different legal and non-legal norms, namely – above all – the legal principles of the constitutions, the monarchical legitimacy of the princes, and the aspirations of the liberals for parliamentary government.”

Picture: Anton von Werner. Die Proklamierung des Deutschen Kaiserreiches. Friedrichsruh, , 1885 (3. Version).

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