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Review Essay - Some Realism about Rationalism: Economic Analysis of Law in Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Viktor Winkler

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German Law Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 6 , 01 June 2005 , pp. 1033 - 1044
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Copyright © 2005 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Coase, Ronald, The Problem of Social Cost, 3 Journal of Law & Economics 1 (1960); Guido Calabresi, Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts, 70 Yale Law Journal 499 (1961). The articles did appear simultaneously because the third volume of the Journal of Law & Economics, even though dated 1960, had really appeared in 1961.Google Scholar

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16 Stigler, George J., The Law and Economics of Public Policy: A Plea to the Scholars, 1 Journal of Legal Studies (J. Legal Stud.) 1 (1974) cited in Adams, Ökonomische Theorie des Rechts, supra note 14 at 11.Google Scholar

17 See hereto the contributions by Baer, Susanne, Nickel, Rainer and Mahlmann, Matthias, in: 1 Annual of German & European Law (Miller, Russell/Zumbansen, Peer eds. 2004), 323, 334, and 353; see already the wide coverage of the debate in German Law Journal: Florian Stork, Comments on the Draft of the New German Private Law Anti-Discrimination Act: Implementing Directives 2000/43/EC and 2004/113/EC in German Private Law, in: 6 German Law Journal 533-548 (2005); Andreas Engert, Allied by Surprise? The Economic Case for an Anti-Discrimination Statute, in: 4 German Law Journal 685-699 (2003); Eduard Picker, DEBATE: Anti-Discrimination as a Program of Private Law?, in: 4 German Law Journal 771-784 (2003); Viktor Winkler, The Planned German Anti-Discrimination Act: Legal Vandalism? A Response to Karl-Heinz Ladeur, in: 3 German Law Journal No. 6 (1 June 2002), available at: http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=158; Karl-Heinz Ladeur, The German Proposal of an “Anti-Discrimination”-Law: Anticonstitutional and Anti-Common Sense. A Response to Nicola Vennemann, in: 3 German Law Journal No. 5 (1 May 2002), available at: http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=152; Nicola Vennemann, The German Draft Legislation On the Prevention of Discrimination in the Private Sector, in: 3 German Law Journal No. 1 (1 March 2002), available at: http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=137.Google Scholar

18 Adams, Ökonomische Theorie des Rechts, supra note 14 at 105; mainly following the seminal enquiry by Becker, Gary S., The Economics of Discrimination (1957).Google Scholar

19 Zumbansen, Peer, Law of Contracts, in: Introduction to German Law (Reimann, Mathias/Zekoll, Joachim eds., 2ND Ed. 2005), 179, 190.Google Scholar

20 Ibid. at 121.Google Scholar

21 For the roots of this approach see Winkler, Viktor, Ökonomische Analyse des Rechts im 19. Jahrhundert: Victor Matajas “Recht des Schadensersatzes”revisited, 26 Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 262 (2004).Google Scholar

22 Posner, Richard, Values and Consequences: An Introduction to Economic Analysis of Law, Chicago Working Papers in Law and Economics No.53 at 9 (1998).Google Scholar

23 See Posner, Richard, Bentham's Influence on the Law and Economics Movement, 51 Current Legal Problems 425 (1998); id., Utilitarianism, Economics, and Legal Theory, 8 J. Legal. Stud. 103 (1979).Google Scholar

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25 Important contributions include Gustav Radbruch, Gesetzliches Unrecht und übergesetzliches Recht, Süddeutsche Juristenzeitung 105 (1946); Wilhelm R. Beyer, Rechtsphilosophische Besinnung (1947); Helmut Coing, Die obersten Grundsätze des Rechts (1947); Hans Welzel, Naturrecht und materiale Gerechtigkeit (1951); Hans Rommen, Die ewige Wiederkehr des Naturrechts, 2nd ed. (1947); for a collection of contributions to the “Naturrechts-Renaissance” see also Naturrecht und Rechtspositivismus (Werner Maihofer ed., 1966).Google Scholar

26 See Thieme, Hans, Das Naturrecht und die europäische Privatrechtsgeschichte (1947); Ludwig Mitteis, Vom Lebenswert der Rechtsgeschichte (1947); Paul Koschaker, Europa und das römische Recht (1947). A brillant inquiry into this connection is Heinz Mohnhaupt, Zur “Neugründung” des Naturrechts nach 1945: Helmut Coings “Die obersten Grundsätze des Rechts” (1947), in Rechtsgeschichtswissenschaft in Deutschland 1945 bis 1952, 97 (Horst Schröder ed., 2001).Google Scholar

27 An exhaustive critique on the dominance of the Natural Law Renaissance in German legal history is lacking. For many important rectifications, see Kühl, Kristian, Kontinuitäten und Diskontinuitäten im Naturrechtsdenken des 20. Jahrhunderts, in Erkenntnisgewinne – Erkenntisverluste 605 (Acham, Karl, Nörr, Knut Wolfgang, Schefold, Bertram eds., 1998), and Joachim Rückert, Zu Kontinuitäten und Diskontinuitäten in der juristischen Methodendiskussion nach 1945, in Erkenntnisgewinne – Erkenntisverluste 113 (Acham, Karl, Nörr, Knut Wolfgang, Schefold, Bertram eds., 1998).Google Scholar

28 see Naturrecht im 19. Jahrhundert (Deithelm Klippel ed., 1997).Google Scholar

29 The most prominent scholars were Franz Wieacker (1908—1994), Karl Larenz (1903—1993), Hans Welzel (1904—1977), and Ernst Rudolf Huber (1903—1990).Google Scholar

30 See Somek, Alexander, Politischer Monismus versus formalistische Aufklärung: Zur Kontroverse zwischen Carl Schmitt und Hans Kelsen, in Untersuchungen zur Reinen Rechtslehre 109 (Paulson, Stanley L./Walter, Robert eds., 1986), and the profound, provoking analysis Izhak Englard, Nazi-Criticism Against the Normativist Theory of Hans Kelsen – Its Intellectual Basis and Post-Modern Tendencies, in Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt – A Juxtaposition 133 (Diner, Dan/Stolleis, Michael eds., 1999).Google Scholar

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32 Radbruch, Gustav, Gesetzliches Unrecht und übergesetzliches Recht, Süddeutsche Juristenzeitung 105 (1946) [The Süddeutsche Juristenzeitung is a law journal that, to my knowledge, lacks a volume number]; Lon Fuller, The Legal Philosophy of Gustav Radbruch, 6 J. Legal Educ. 481 (1953/1954); H.L.A. Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals, 71 Harvard Law Review (Harv. L. Rev.) 593 (1958).Google Scholar

33 See for a more recent application of the Radbruch thesis in the Berlin wall trials, Russell A. Miller, Rejecting Radbruch: The European Court of Human Rights and the Crimes of the East German Leadership, in: 14 Leiden Journal of International Law 653-663 (2001).Google Scholar

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37 Winkler, Viktor, Dubious Heritage. The German Debate on the Anti-Discrimination Law, 15 Iowa Journal of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems (forthcoming, 2005); for this particular discussion see id., The Planned German Anti-Discrimination Act: Legal Vandalism? A Response to Karl-Heinz Ladeur, 3 German Law Journal No. 6 (2002).Google Scholar

38 See the “classic” Fritz Stern, The Politics of Cultural Dispair (1961); Ulrich Kronauer, Gegenwelten der Aufklärung (2003).Google Scholar

39 See Kamphausen, Georg, Die Erfindung Amerikas in der Kulturkritik der Generation von 1890 (2002).Google Scholar

40 George, Robert, In Defense of Natural Law (1999); Michael Zuckert, Do Natural Rights Derive From Natural Law?, 20 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 695 (1997); Philipp Soper, Making Sense of Modern Jurisprudence: The Paradox of Positivism and the Challenge for Natural Law, 22 Creighton Law Review. 67 (1988); see also Pound, Roscoe, The Ideal Element in Law (1948); ibid., Idea of an Universal Law, 1 UCLA Law Review 7 (1953).Google Scholar

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45 Compare the overview by Kennedy, Duncan, Legal Formalism, The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 8634 (2001); For Jhering's formalist notions, however, see Somek, Alexander, Legal Formality and Freedom of Choice, A Moral Perspective on Jhering's Constructivism, 15 Ratio Juris 52 (2002).Google Scholar

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48 Holmes’ “positivist” convictions are documented in his dissent to Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205, 221-22 (1917). The famous case for the alleged “dualism” in Holmes’ positivism was made by Hart, H.L.A., Holmes’ Positivism – An Addendum, 64 Harv. L. Rev. 929 (1951).Google Scholar

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53 Ibid.Google Scholar

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55 For the underlying problems between enlightenment, indoctrination and academic freedom see Kennedy, Duncan, Politicizing the Classroom, 4 U.S.C. Review of Law and Women's Studies 81 (1995).Google Scholar