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[German Version] (Mar 27, 1857, Urach – Nov 28, 1927, Erlangen), Protestant jurist. After studying theology and philosophy, Rieker first worked for the church. He then studied law in Leipzig, where he gained a doctorate and Habilitation in 1891. In 1893 he was appointed assistant professor, and from 1903 full professor of public law and history of law, in Erlangen. In his main work on the legal position of the Protestant Church in Germany, Rieker essentially seeks to prove that the synodal and presbyterial principles have no basis…

[German Version] I. Protestantism – II. Catholicism I. Protestantism In the 16th and 17th century (before territorialism and collegialism), episcopalism and the theory of the episcopal system developed by its proponents represented the earliest justification of the ecclesiastical authority wielded by Protestant princes in their realms. 1. While the Reformers regarded these local rulers as mere fellow Christians, albeit as praecipuum membrum ecclesiae, and wished to invest them with this authority only as long as seemed necessa…

[German Version] (May 16, 1867, Königsberg [Kaliningrad] – Sep 21, 1941, Göttingen), Protestant jurisprudent. He was appointed associate professor at Jena in 1896 and a full professor in 1900; in the same year he was appointed to a full professorship in Göttingen. Besides numerous works on public law, he wrote a major two-volume Das evangelische Kirchenrecht in Preußen (1903–1910, repr. 1967), discussing church law in Prussia without reference to its theological dimension or ecclesiastical politics, developing instead its parallelism with state and co…

[German Version] (Feb 15, 1808, Stolpen – May 8, 1864, Berlin), Protestant teacher of church law. In 1835 Richter became assistant professor in Leipzig, in 1838 full professor in Marburg, and from 1846 in Berlin; he was a member of the Protestant High Consistory between 1850 and 1859, and thereafter senior privy councilor in the Prussian ministry of culture. Together with K.F. Eichhorn, Richter is regarded as one of the founders of the church law branch of the history of law school. When he was only 31, he published a new critical edition of the Corpus iuris canonici. Alongside numerous oth…

[German Version] (Aug 31, 1798, Cadolzburg – Jan 8, 1846, Berlin), Protestant jurisprudent. Puchta studied law at Erlangen, receiving his degree in 1820; after gaining his habilitation in Roman law in 1823, he became an associate professor. In 1825 he was appointed full professor at Munich; in 1835 he moved to Marburg and in 1837 to Leipzig. In 1842, when F.C. v. Savigny was appointed high chancellor, Puchta succeeded to his chair at Berlin, then the most prominent in Germany. In 1842 he was also …

[German Version] Following episcopalism (I) and territorialism, collegialism was the latest of the three 17th- and 18th century theories on the origin and legitimation of vesting ecclesiastical authority of prince in the Protestant territories of the German Empire. The early collegialists (C.M. Pfaff, L. v. Mosheim) were concerned to limit the comprehensive claim to the prince's authority over religious matters as an aspect of public order asserted …

[German Version] I. Philosophy Natural law is the essence of the legal norms that claim to be binding on all human beings, independent of positive laws and conventions. The term goes back to the distinction between nature( phýsis) and law ( nómos; Law/Natural law), put forward by the Sophists of the 5th century bce in order to challenge the traditional positive laws. According to Antiphon, the precepts of such laws are arbitrary, whereas the precepts of nature, which articulate individual benefit, are necessary (DK, frgm. B 44). Plato presents a v…

[German Version] (Jan 7, 1811, Nuremberg – Jan 24, 1893, Nuremberg), Lutheran legal historian and canonist. He was appointed associate professor at Erlangen in 1840 and full professor in 1845. Besides Roman law and matrimonial law, his major interest was canon law (IV, 2.b), whose institutions he explained in the spirit of the historical school of law. In confessional disputes, he emphatically took the side of Lutheranism, while at the same time supporting greater independence of the church from the state. Christoph Link Bibliography C.A. Stumpf, Kirchenrecht als Bekenntnisrecht.…

[German Version] (Aug 21, 1860, Vienna – Sep 10, 1932, Prague), Catholic professor of canon law. After his habilitation in law in Vienna (1889), he was appointed associate professor (1891) and full professor (1894) in Chernivtsi. In 1896 he was appointed to a professorship in the faculty of law at Innsbruck. Wahrmund, who had been noted for his studies on legal history, became really famous in the “Wahrmund affair.” He aggressively asserted the incompatibility of the “Catholic worldview” with mode…

[German Version] (May 8, 1832, Gedern – Dec 30, 1895, Darmstadt), Protestant theologian and authority on ecclesiastical law. After studying at Gießen and seminary training, he served initially as a private tutor and Gymnasium teacher. In 1863 he was appointed professor of catechetics and ecclesiastical law at the seminary in Friedberg; in 1882 he was appointed chief consistorial councilor in Darmstadt and superintendent for Rheinhessen. Köhler considered ecclesiastical law a necessary function of …

1. Definition and originsThe concept of ius divinum (“divine law”) is based on the idea found in many cultures that law or part of law has divine origins. Obviously, in early modern Europe, Christianity significantly influenced the theory of ius divinum.Classical Roman jurisprudence split religion and law into two separate areas. Imperial Roman jurists’ attribution of the Imperial of the power of the princeps to ius divinum would prove particularly consequential for the West. In this way, ius divinum became the basis for the legitimacy of all law (Legitimacy). The scho…

1. Begriff und HerkunftDer Begriff des G. R. (lat. ius divinum) beruht auf der in vielen Kulturen anzutreffenden Vorstellung, das Recht oder ein Teil des Rechts sei göttlichen Ursprungs. Es liegt auf der Hand, dass im Europa der Nz. das Christentum die Entwicklung der Lehre vom G. R. prägte.Die klassische röm. Jurisprudenz hatte Religion und Recht in zwei getrennte Regelungsbereiche aufgespalten. Folgenreich für die abendländische Geschichte wurde jedoch, dass die Juristen der röm. Kaiserzeit die Herrschaft des princeps wiederum auf G. R. gründeten. Damit wurde das ius divinum …