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19 Me. L. Rev. 1 (1967)
Eugen Ehrlich's Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law

handle is hein.journals/maine19 and id is 5 raw text is: EUGEN EHRLICH'S FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW Neil 0. Littlefield* FOREWORD There is little biographical data available on the life of Eugen Ehr- lich. He was born in 1862 at Czernowitz in the Duchy of Bukowina. He received his legal education at Vienna and after serving on the fac- ulty there as a Privatdozent (assistant lecturer), he returned, in 1897, to his birthplace to become Professor of Roman Law at the University of Czernowitz. We find this brief comment about the personality of Ehrlich: His European influence was lessened by a contentious personality and by the unreliability of his technical writings. His growing American influ- ence was set back by the World War.' Ehrlich died in 1922, in the sixtieth year of his age, broken in health, as much a casualty of the war as Moseley at Gallipoli and as great a loss to the domain of learning.'2 Professor Ehrlich is best known for Grundlegung der Soziologie des Rechts (Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law)3 and for his support of the free-finding of law as a description of the judicial pro- * Professor of Law, University of Connecticut; Visiting Professor of Law, Indiana University; B.S., 1953, University of Maine; LL.B., 1957, Boston Uni- versity; LL.M., 1959, S.J.D., 1961, University of Michigan. IPatterson, Ehrlich, 5 ENcyc. Soc. Sci. 445 (1937). It might be pointed out that Professor Ehrlich's American influence was cut short twice. In 1914, he was invited to address the Association of American Law Schools at its annual meeting when the war intervened. After the war, the American hopes of a visit were frus- trated by Ehrlich's bad health which resulted from hardships suffered during the war. 2Simpson, Book Review, 51 HARV. L. REV. 190 (1937). 3 The only English translation of this work was not published until 1936. The English translation by Walter L. Moll may be found in 5 HARVARD STUDIES IN JURISPRUDENCE (1936) with an introduction by Roscoe Pound. However, it is clear from Pound's introduction that Ehrlich's work was previously known to American scholars. See Ehrlich, The Sociology of Law, Pound, Introduction to EHRLICH, FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW at XXIX (1936), 36 HARv. L. REV. 130, 145 (1922), which restates in brief the thesis of EHRLIcH, FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW.

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