Monday, December 10, 2012

Historical School of Law


“ We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle (384BC-322BC)

The Key Figures:
1.     Friedrich von Savigny (1779-1861), “Law is never created but it grows along with its society.”
2.     G.V. Puchta (1798-1846), “Law is like a living organism. It is simply like language.”
3.     Sir Henry Maine, “Law is unikum.”

According to Savigny:
1.     There is no individual-humans, only social-humans;
2.     Law is never created but it grows along with society;
3.     Law is ‘supra-individuals’ (social phenomena) related to history in its society;
4.     In primitive society, law is created without any engineering process through the spirit of its society (Volksgeist);
5.     The Volksgeist is maintained with the supports of political and technical elements.

Savigny believes that law is one of several factors in the life of a nation such as language, custom, moral, and constitution. So law is something ‘supra-individual’ or a symptom of society.


LAW = CULTURAL EXPRESSION/ REFLECTION OF THE SPIRIT OF NATION



Description: Law is never created. It grows along with its society and is in line with the norms. Simply said law is the spirit of its nation. It is simultaneously flowing in circle.

Law is like a language. There is no moment of absolute cessation. It grows with the growth of society and strengthens with the strength of the people, and finally dies away as the nation loses its nationality.

The weakness is the positive law is blurred (or maybe it’s a good one? LOL), and the progress of law is depending on the society itself. It can be improved as long as is in line with the spirit of the nation. 

So it is hard to develop the law when the influence from outside or external factor pushes and pulls the law.

The good point is, the law will always fit the society because it is the spirit of the society itself.
The example of this thought is customary law. I actually like this thought so I’ll keep it on my mind :)
I hope you can get what I was trying to say, sorry for the mistakes! :*

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