Michael Stolleis – författare

German public law has been taught in universities since the early 17th century and continues to this day to be a dominant subject in German legal culture, especially in its modern incarnations of constitutional and administrative law, and European and international law. Michael Stolleis's Public Law in Germany: A Historical Introduction from the 16th to the 21st Century, expertly translated by Thomas Dunlap, provides an account of the fundamental developments in public law that situates current debates in the German Federal Constitutional Court as well as the role of the nation-state in Europe more broadly. It further examines the role of fundamental rights through the lens of Germany's special administrative courts and discusses their important role in the advancement of German law. Written with students in mind, the book distils Stolleis's masterful four-volume History of Public Law in Germany, the third volume of which (1914-1945) was published by Oxford University Press in 2004. It is an invaluable companion to the understanding of German public law more generally.

This history of the discipline of public law in Germany covers three dramatic decades of the twentieth century. It opens with the First World War, analyses the highly creative years of the Weimar Republic, and recounts the decline of German public law that began in 1933 and extended to the downfall of the Third Reich. The author examines the dialectic of scholarship and politics against the background of long-term developments in industrial societies, the rise of the interventionist state, the shift of state law and administrative law theory, and the emergence of new disciplines (tax law, social law, labour law, business administration law). Almost all the issues and questions that preoccupy state law and administrative law theory at the dawn of the twenty-first century were first pondered and debated during this period. Stolleis begins by emphasizing the long farewell to the nineteenth century and then moves on to examine the doctrine of state law and administrative law during the First World War. The impact of the Weimar Constitution and the of the Versailles Treaty on the discipline is discussed. Here the famous 'quarrel of direction' that occurred in the field of state law doctrine (1926-1929) played a central role. But equally important was the development of state law and administrative law theory (in both the Reich and its constituent states), administrative doctrine, and the jurisprudence of international law. Part two of the book is devoted to the impact of National Socialism. The displacement of Jewish scholars, the change of direction in the professional journals, and the shutdown of the Association of State Law Teachers form one aspect of the story. The other aspect is manifested in the erosion of public law and in the growing sense of depression that gripped its practitioners. In the end, it was not only state law that was destroyed by the Nazi experience, but the scholarly discipline that went with it. The author tackles questions about the co-responsibility of scholars for the Holocaust, and the reasons fwhy academic teachers of public law were all but absent in the opposition to the Nazi regime.

In the Law under the Swastika, Michael Stolleis examines the evolution of legal history, theory, and practice in Nazi Germany, paying close attention to its impact on the Federal Republic and on the German legal profession. Until the late 1960s, historians of the Nazi judicial system were mostly judges and administrators from the Nazi era. According to Stolleis, they were reluctant to investigate this legal history and maintained the ideal that law could not be affected by politics. Michael Stolleis is part of a younger generation and is determined to honestly confront the past in hopes of preventing the same injustices from happening in the future. Stolleis studies a wide range of legal fields—constitutional, judicial, agrarian, administrative, civil, and business—arguing that all types of law were affected by the political realities of National Socialism. Moreover, he shows that legal traditions were not relinquished immediately with the onset of a new regime. For the first time we can see clearly the continuities between the Nazi period and the postwar period. The law under National Socialism did not make a complete break with the law during the Weimar Republic, nor did the law of the Federal Republic nullify all of the laws under National Socialism. Through a rich and subtle investigation, Stolleis shows how the legal profession and the political regime both reacted to the conditions of the period and molded the judicial system accordingly. Breaking the conspiracy of silence held by the justices in the postwar period, Stolleis stresses the importance of researching Nazi law in order to confront ethical problems in today''s legal profession.

Written by the eminent German legal historian, Michael Stolleis, these two ‘Essays on Legal History’ offer an original and compelling history of the symbolism through which law is characterised as being 'above' us. In ‘The Eye of the Law’, the history of this metaphor is followed from antiquity through to the present day: from the Greek Eye of Justice, the eye of the impartial judge of the Underworld, the Eye of God watching past, present and future, the Eye of the Prince, guiding his subjects, to the almighty Eye of the Law. While our belief in the law may have become brittle, nothing escapes what is now the Eye of Big Brother. ‘In the Name of the Law’ takes up the various formulas used to legitimate the decisions of the courts, from the times of absolutism over the 19th century until today. The speaker who speaks in the name of a higher being underlines his function: his authority comes from above. And it is ‘in the name of’ god, king, people, state, nation, or law, that a weak, earthly, justice receives its support.

This impressive volume is the first attempt to look at the intertwined histories of natural law and the laws of nature in early modern Europe. These notions became central to jurisprudence and natural philosophy in the seventeenth century; the debates that informed developments in those fields drew heavily on theology and moral philosophy, and vice versa. Historians of science, law, philosophy, and theology from Europe and North America here come together to address these central themes and to consider the question; was the emergence of natural law both in European jurisprudence and natural philosophy merely a coincidence, or did these disciplinary traditions develop within a common conceptual matrix, in which theological, philosophical, and political arguments converged to make the analogy between legal and natural orders compelling. This book will stimulate new debate in the areas of intellectual history and the history of philosophy, as well as the natural and human sciences in general.

This impressive volume is the first attempt to look at the intertwined histories of natural law and the laws of nature in early modern Europe. These notions became central to jurisprudence and natural philosophy in the seventeenth century; the debates that informed developments in those fields drew heavily on theology and moral philosophy, and vice versa. Historians of science, law, philosophy, and theology from Europe and North America here come together to address these central themes and to consider the question; was the emergence of natural law both in European jurisprudence and natural philosophy merely a coincidence, or did these disciplinary traditions develop within a common conceptual matrix, in which theological, philosophical, and political arguments converged to make the analogy between legal and natural orders compelling. This book will stimulate new debate in the areas of intellectual history and the history of philosophy, as well as the natural and human sciences in general.

This study, by one of Germany's most prominent scholars of legal history, examines a period crucial for the history of constitutionalism in this century after the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806. This was the era of the Congress of Vienna, of the Restoration and the constitutionalist movement, of the Revolution of 1848 and the foundation of the German Empire by Bismarck. All these developments had profound repercussions on the social and constitutional structures of central European society; they invalidated the basic principles of the previous legal system and paved the way for the changes and controversies involved in the formation of a notion of the state and public law in the nineteenth century.But the history of public law is also marked by continuities, by long-term shits in feudal and criminal law related to the social and political conditions of the period. Integrating intellectual with political history, this book explores the constitutional movements in the literature and scholarship of public law leading to the foundation of the German Confederation, the rise of administrative law with the "German Revolution" of 1848, and the parallels between, and increased separation of, private and public spheres in the epoch of positivism that depoliticized the scholarly investigation of public law and led to the call for the purely legal construction of constitutional law that we have today.

Das Lehrbuch bietet grundlegende Orientierung in der Verfassungs- oder Verwaltungsgeschichte: über die Quellen, die vorhandene Forschungsliteratur und die besonderen methodischen Fragen. Dieser Überblick gewinnt immer mehr an Bedeutung, weil die einstmals an den Nationalstaat gebundenen Fragestellungen heute von europäisch vergleichenden abgelöst werden. Eine Ausweitung auf eine globale Perspektive wird ebenfalls unternommen.

Das Lehrbuch bietet grundlegende Orientierung in der Verfassungs- oder Verwaltungsgeschichte: über die Quellen, die vorhandene Forschungsliteratur und die besonderen methodischen Fragen. Dieser Überblick gewinnt immer mehr an Bedeutung, weil die einstmals an den Nationalstaat gebundenen Fragestellungen heute von europäisch vergleichenden abgelöst werden. Eine Ausweitung auf eine globale Perspektive wird ebenfalls unternommen.

Die in großer Zahl überlieferten italienischen Stadtrechte des Mittelalters sind eine reiche, bisher noch nicht hinreichend genutzte Quelle für Kunstgeschichte und Rechtsgeschichte. Sie geben nicht nur Auskunft über die Anlage von Plätzen und Denkmälern, Kirchen und Stadtbefestigungen, sondern lassen auch Rückschlüsse auf den ästhetischen Gestaltungswillen der damaligen Obrigkeiten und ihre Vision der bellezza della città zu. Der Band dokumentiert eine interdisziplinäre Tagung vom 20.-23. September 2001 in der Villa Vigoni am Comer See.

This book traces the origins of the German welfare state. The author, formerly director at the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt, provides a perceptive overview of the history of social security and social welfare in Germany from early modern times to the end of World War II, including Bismarck’s pioneering introduction of social insurance in the 1880s. The author unravels “layers” of social security that have piled up in the course of history and, so he argues, still linger in the present-day welfare state. The account begins with the first efforts by public authorities to regulate poverty and then proceeds to the “social question” that arose during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. World War I had a major impact on the development of social security, both during the war and after, through the exigencies of the war economy, inflation and unemployment. The ruptures as well as the continuities of social policy under National Socialism and World War II are also investigated.

This book traces the origins of the German welfare state. The author, formerly director at the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt, provides a perceptive overview of the history of social security and social welfare in Germany from early modern times to the end of World War II, including Bismarck’s pioneering introduction of social insurance in the 1880s. The author unravels “layers” of social security that have piled up in the course of history and, so he argues, still linger in the present-day welfare state. The account begins with the first efforts by public authorities to regulate poverty and then proceeds to the “social question” that arose during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. World War I had a major impact on the development of social security, both during the war and after, through the exigencies of the war economy, inflation and unemployment. The ruptures as well as the continuities of social policy under National Socialism and World War II are also investigated.

The sole available comprehensive history of social law and the model of social welfare in Germany. The book explains the origins since the medieval times, but concentrates on the 19th and 20th centuries, especially on the introduction of the social insurance 1881-1889, of the expansion of the system in the Weimar Republic, under the Nazi-System and after World War II in the FRG and the GDR. The system of social welfare in Germany is one of the pillars of economic stability.

The sole available comprehensive history of social law and the model of social welfare in Germany. The book explains the origins since the medieval times, but concentrates on the 19th and 20th centuries, especially on the introduction of the social insurance 1881-1889, of the expansion of the system in the Weimar Republic, under the Nazi-System and after World War II in the FRG and the GDR. The system of social welfare in Germany is one of the pillars of economic stability.

This book traces the origins of the German welfare state. The author, formerly director at the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt, provides a perceptive overview of the history of social security and social welfare in Germany from early modern times to the end of World War II, including Bismarck’s pioneering introduction of social insurance in the 1880s. The author unravels “layers” of social security that have piled up in the course of history and, so he argues, still linger in the present-day welfare state. The account begins with the first efforts by public authorities to regulate poverty and then proceeds to the “social question” that arose during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. World War I had a major impact on the development of social security, both during the war and after, through the exigencies of the war economy, inflation and unemployment. The ruptures as well as the continuities of social policy under National Socialism and World War II are also investigated.

The sole available comprehensive history of social law and the model of social welfare in Germany. The book explains the origins since the medieval times, but concentrates on the 19th and 20th centuries, especially on the introduction of the social insurance 1881-1889, of the expansion of the system in the Weimar Republic, under the Nazi-System and after World War II in the FRG and the GDR. The system of social welfare in Germany is one of the pillars of economic stability.

Die Menschheitsverbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts wirken bis heute nach, so auch in den Forderungen der Opfer nach Entschädigung oder in den Bemühungen von Politik und Justiz, die Verantwortlichen zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen. Michael Stolleis untersucht, wie sich die Institutionen des deutschen »Rechtsstaates" in verschiedenen politischen Systemen zu jener staatlichen Makrokriminalität verhielten. Welche Sicherungsmechanismen waren mit dem Rechtsstaat seit Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts geschaffen worden und warum versagten sie im 20. Jahrhundert? Wie lässt sich Staatsgewalt durch eine Justiz kontrollieren, die ihrerseits Staatsgewalt darstellt? Wie vollzog sich der Wiederaufbau der westdeutschen Justiz nach 1945 und wie ging sie mit ehemaligen NS-Richtern um? Und wie konnte in der DDR - einem Staat ohne Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit - öffentliches Recht gelehrt werden? In einem ausführlichen Interview reflektiert der Rechtshistoriker die Entwicklung der juristischen Zeitgeschichte, die er selbst seit den sechziger Jahren maßgeblich geprägt hat.

El libro recoge las ponencias sobre partidos políticos presentadas por Konrad Hesse y Michael Stolleis en sendos congresos de la Asociación de profesores alemanes de Derecho público, la célebre Vereinigung der deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer.La ponencia de Hesse (1958) propone un acercamiento a los partidos políticos alejado de algunas de las dicotomías tradicionales en la teoría de la Constitución y del Estado, como las que contraponen Estado y sociedad o identidad y representación. Hesse parte del art. 21.1 de Constitución alemana ("los partidos contribuyen a la formación de la voluntad política del pueblo") para determinar el concepto de democracia del que parte la Constitución e identificar las funciones que esta atribuye a los partidos. Tales funciones presuponen una posición constitucional que Hesse identifica mediante tres rasgos: libertad, igualdad y estatus público, que no debe confundirse con una incorporación de los partidos al espacio institucionalizado del poder estatal.Stolleis (1985), dando por supuesta la misma perspectiva dogmática, considera la realidad de los partidos de modo pragmático. De ese modo impugna los planteamientos que contraponen artificialmente un idealizado "Estado constitucional democrático" y un supuesto "Estado dominado por los partidos"; porque, para la Constitución, los partidos son un elemento básico en la realización del postulado democrático que caracteriza al Estado.La introducción contextualiza esas ponencias en el marco inmediato de los congresos que las acogieron, resumiendo las contraponencias y los debates, y también en el más amplio de la trayectoria de la Asociación, desde su fundación hace cien años en octubre de 1922.

A collaboration of leading historians of European law and philosophers of law and politics identifying and explaining the practice of interpretation of law in the 18th century. The goal: establishing the actual practice in the Age of Enlightenment, and explaining why this was the case. The ideology of the Age was that law, i.e., the will of the sovereign, can be explicitly and appropriately stated, thus making interpretation redundant. However, the reality was that in the 18th century, there was no one leading source of national law that would be the object of interpretation. Instead, there was a plurality of sources of law: the Roman Law, local customary law, and the royal ordinance. However, in deciding a case in a court of law, the law must speak with one voice. Hence, interpretation to unify the norms was inevitable. What was the process? What role did justification in terms of reason, the hallmark of the Enlightenment, play? These are some of the questions addressed.

A collaboration of leading historians of European law and philosophers of law and politics identifying and explaining the practice of interpretation of law in the 18th century. The goal: establishing the actual practice in the Age of Enlightenment, and explaining why this was the case. The ideology of the Age was that law, i.e., the will of the sovereign, can be explicitly and appropriately stated, thus making interpretation redundant. However, the reality was that in the 18th century, there was no one leading source of national law that would be the object of interpretation. Instead, there was a plurality of sources of law: the Roman Law, local customary law, and the royal ordinance. However, in deciding a case in a court of law, the law must speak with one voice. Hence, interpretation to unify the norms was inevitable. What was the process? What role did justification in terms of reason, the hallmark of the Enlightenment, play? These are some of the questions addressed.