Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?

The article proposes that legal history can fruitfully be understood as the history of the production of normative knowledge. Such a perspective builds on a long tradition of legal historical research on the formation of norms, ideas, doctrines and institutions. For the last two centuries, however,...

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Main Author: Thomas Duve
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory 2021-11-01
Series:Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History
Subjects:
Online Access:https://proceedings.hpsg.xyz/index.php/rg/article/view/68
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author Thomas Duve
author_facet Thomas Duve
author_sort Thomas Duve
collection DOAJ
description The article proposes that legal history can fruitfully be understood as the history of the production of normative knowledge. Such a perspective builds on a long tradition of legal historical research on the formation of norms, ideas, doctrines and institutions. For the last two centuries, however, the main focus of legal historical research, especially in the German tradition, was directed towards what has been called »the law of jurists« (Juristenrecht). Legal historians were interested, first and foremost, in the formation of the modern Western legal system as a product of the work of jurists. The production of normative knowledge by other epistemic communities and communities of practice received far less attention, nor did legal historians integrate praxeological aspects into their research. Looking at legal history as a continuous process of the translation – and thus the production – of normative knowledge can provide an analytical framework that helps overcome these constraints. It offers the possibility of integrating different epistemic communities and communities of practice into its analysis and is able to incorporate the study of practices, materiality and other longneglected aspects of norm production. Not least, it serves as a method for a truly global legal history. The results of such a legal history might be less suggestive and fascinating than the big legal historical narratives of rationalization, professionalization and the formation of Western law that have inspired legal historians from the northern hemisphere during the 20th century. It can, however, offer a more complex picture of the past and provides us with the intellectual tools for a better understanding of norm production in the 21st century.
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spelling doaj-art-657e8e43e65442fabc4f5877beb6e2c82025-02-11T06:08:52ZdeuMax Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal TheoryRechtsgeschichte - Legal History1619-49932195-96172021-11-0129Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?Thomas Duve0Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie, Frankfurt am Main The article proposes that legal history can fruitfully be understood as the history of the production of normative knowledge. Such a perspective builds on a long tradition of legal historical research on the formation of norms, ideas, doctrines and institutions. For the last two centuries, however, the main focus of legal historical research, especially in the German tradition, was directed towards what has been called »the law of jurists« (Juristenrecht). Legal historians were interested, first and foremost, in the formation of the modern Western legal system as a product of the work of jurists. The production of normative knowledge by other epistemic communities and communities of practice received far less attention, nor did legal historians integrate praxeological aspects into their research. Looking at legal history as a continuous process of the translation – and thus the production – of normative knowledge can provide an analytical framework that helps overcome these constraints. It offers the possibility of integrating different epistemic communities and communities of practice into its analysis and is able to incorporate the study of practices, materiality and other longneglected aspects of norm production. Not least, it serves as a method for a truly global legal history. The results of such a legal history might be less suggestive and fascinating than the big legal historical narratives of rationalization, professionalization and the formation of Western law that have inspired legal historians from the northern hemisphere during the 20th century. It can, however, offer a more complex picture of the past and provides us with the intellectual tools for a better understanding of norm production in the 21st century. https://proceedings.hpsg.xyz/index.php/rg/article/view/68legal historyhistory of knowledgeepistemic communitylegal historiography
spellingShingle Thomas Duve
Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?
Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History
legal history
history of knowledge
epistemic community
legal historiography
title Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?
title_full Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?
title_fullStr Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?
title_full_unstemmed Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?
title_short Rechtsgeschichte als Geschichte von Normativitätswissen?
title_sort rechtsgeschichte als geschichte von normativitatswissen
topic legal history
history of knowledge
epistemic community
legal historiography
url https://proceedings.hpsg.xyz/index.php/rg/article/view/68
work_keys_str_mv AT thomasduve rechtsgeschichtealsgeschichtevonnormativitatswissen