Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Hierarchy of Courts
- Glossary of Legal and Other Terms
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- 1 The Archimedean Point: Lawyers, Liberalism, and the Middle-Class Project
- 2 Freie Advokatur: The Blending of the Middle-Class and Professional Projects
- 3 Foundation of the Modern Profession: The Private Bar under the Lawyers' Statute
- 4 Institutional Framework: Lawyers and Honoratiorenpolitik
- 5 Growth and Diversification: Lawyers in the Province of Hannover, 1878–1933
- 6 Elites and Professional Ideology: Self-Discipline and Self-Administration by the Anwaltskammer Celle
- 7 Simultaneous Admission: The Limits of Honoratiorenpolitik
- 8 The Limits of Economic Liberalism: Freie Advokatur or Numerus Clausus?
- 9 The Limits of Political Liberalism: Lawyers and the Weimar State
- 10 Conclusion: Lawyers and the Limits of Liberalism
- Methodological Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Archimedean Point: Lawyers, Liberalism, and the Middle-Class Project
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Hierarchy of Courts
- Glossary of Legal and Other Terms
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- 1 The Archimedean Point: Lawyers, Liberalism, and the Middle-Class Project
- 2 Freie Advokatur: The Blending of the Middle-Class and Professional Projects
- 3 Foundation of the Modern Profession: The Private Bar under the Lawyers' Statute
- 4 Institutional Framework: Lawyers and Honoratiorenpolitik
- 5 Growth and Diversification: Lawyers in the Province of Hannover, 1878–1933
- 6 Elites and Professional Ideology: Self-Discipline and Self-Administration by the Anwaltskammer Celle
- 7 Simultaneous Admission: The Limits of Honoratiorenpolitik
- 8 The Limits of Economic Liberalism: Freie Advokatur or Numerus Clausus?
- 9 The Limits of Political Liberalism: Lawyers and the Weimar State
- 10 Conclusion: Lawyers and the Limits of Liberalism
- Methodological Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In 1867, Rudolf von Gneist, professor of law at the University of Berlin, a founder of the Social Policy Association, member of the Reichstag for the National Liberal Party, and one of the leading moderate liberals in Germany, published a clarion call for the reform of the Prussian judicial and legal system in a slim volume entitled The Free Legal Profession: The First Requirement for any Reform of the Justice System in Prussia. After recounting and analyzing myriad shortcomings in the judicial and legal structures of the Kingdom of Prussia, Gneist reached the seemingly remarkable conclusion that “the correct organization of the private legal profession will prove to be the Archimedean point from which these relations are to be guided back into the right course.”
Gneist contended that the importance of the modernization of the German judicial and legal system transcended mere technical improvement of the conduct of trials; indeed, he viewed reform of the judicial and legal system as the very key to the success of the middle-class project of German liberalism. Voicing the goals of German liberals since the Prussian reform era, Gneist proclaimed:
We aspire to a self-reliance of the citizenry, which is flowing like an irresistible force through central European society. In modern political life, this self-reliance can only mean the free movement of the Bürger within legal bounds. … Political and personal freedom in Germany will be established upon the statutory regulation of the right of state sovereignty rather than upon sovereign majority decisions of state, county, city, and village assemblies. … [T]he personal rights of the individual will be protected against the arbitrariness of the administration with the existing laws.
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- Information
- From General Estate to Special InterestGerman Lawyers 1878–1933, pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996