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53 L. Q. Rev. 326 (1937)
Savigny and the Historical School of Law

handle is hein.journals/lqr53 and id is 338 raw text is: SAVIGNY AND THE HISTORICAL SCHOOL OF LAW. AVIGNY'S is a great name all over the world, England not excepted. In the well-known book, which Sir John Macdonell edited in 1913 under the title 'Great Jurists of the World', Savigny is called 'the greatest jurist that Europe has produced 'Y and his Treatise on Possession was called by such a critic as John Austin ' 'of all books upon law the most con- summate and masterly'. The French usually do not incline to worship German scholars, but they published two biographiep of Savigny in his lifetime.3 In 1874 Professor Rodibre of Toulouse University, in his work 'Les grands jurisconsultes', wrote a prayer, in which he asked M. de Savigny to pray in heaven that the country of his ancestors might again become the queen of the nations.' This, by-the-by, is based on a misunder- standing, for his ancestors had been knights of the German Empire at least since 1353, had afterwards constantly fought against France, and their greatest scion was a francophobe throughout his life. Whether he changed his opinion after his death is unknown. Among the great scholars the name of Friedrich Carl von Savigny is unique in the sense that in his country it has become sacrosanct. By sacrosanct I mean it is protected by public opinion to the extent that an attack on it no matter how justified is condemned as positively wicked, even as the act of a traitor. I am told there are no sacrosanct names in this country, but one could cite George Washington in America, Garibaldi in Italy, Lenin in Russia. As to Germany-and I wish to make it clear from the outset, that in referring to Germany, I am referring only to the period before 1933-such names are for example those of Frederic the Great and Bismarck, but also that of Savigny. This is astonishing, since except in China the highest fame has never been achieved by scholars, and parti- cularly not by jurists, whose work is so very technical. Let me give three amazing examples. One of the greatest of P. 581. Lectures on Jurisprudence, vol. i, Outlines of Lectures, liv-lviii. Ch. Guenoux, in the Preface to his translation of the Geschichte (vol. i, Par. 1839): Ed. Laboulaye, Essai sur la vie et les doctrines de Fr. Ch. de S. Wa*r. 842). ' 1. 46G.

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