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| Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte | |
|---|---|
| Title | Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte |
| Discipline | Legal history |
| Language | German |
| Publisher | Max Planck Institute for European Legal History |
| Country | Germany |
| History | 19th century–present |
| Frequency | Periodical |
Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte is a long‑running German legal history journal founded in the 19th century associated with the Savigny Foundation and the Romanist and Germanic legal traditions. It sits within the milieu of Friedrich Carl von Savigny, the Max Planck Society, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and contemporary continental legal historiography, intersecting scholars from Berlin, Bonn, Leipzig, and Munich. The journal has played a role alongside publications such as Revue internationale de droit comparé, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Legal History, and Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie in shaping research on medieval, Roman, and modern European law.
The journal was established amid 19th‑century debates involving figures like Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, Heinrich Brunner, Otto von Gierke, and institutions such as the Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Göttingen. Early editorial direction reflected networks linking the Prussian legal reform era, the scholarly circles of Leopold von Ranke, and the comparative projects pursued at the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and by the German Historical School. Through the Wilhelmine period, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the post‑1945 reorganization involving the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, the journal engaged debates alongside the German Civil Code, the Grundgesetz, and international currents represented by the Institut de Droit Comparé de Paris. Key editorial transitions involved scholars from the University of Jena, University of Freiburg, University of Cologne, and the University of Hamburg.
The periodical covers research on Roman law, Canon law, Germanic law, medieval legal institutions, and modern European legal developments, often juxtaposing sources such as the Corpus Juris Civilis, the Decretum Gratiani, and regional statutes like the Sachsenspiegel and the Town law of Lübeck. Articles situate doctrinal analysis in relation to actors and texts including Justinian I, Gregory IX, Alcuin, Charlemagne, Otto I, and manuscripts from archives like the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Comparative pieces engage traditions from England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Russia, and discuss institutional contexts such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Council of Trent, the Council of Basel, and the Hanoverian electorate. Interdisciplinary work connects to philologists working on August Wilhelm von Schlegel, historians such as Jacob Burckhardt, and paleographers referencing collections at the Vatican Library.
Editorial leadership historically involved figures affiliated with the Savigny Foundation, the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, and university law faculties at Berlin Humboldt University, University of Munich, and University of Vienna. Boards have included scholars connected to the German Research Foundation, the European University Institute, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the British Academy. Publishing houses and institutional presses cooperating with the journal have ties to Mohr Siebeck, De Gruyter, and the publishing offices of the Max Planck Gesellschaft. Editorial policies reflect peer review practices common to outlets such as Speculum, The English Historical Review, and the American Journal of Legal History and institutional funding from agencies like the VolkswagenStiftung.
Prominent contributors have included historians and jurists such as Heinrich Brunner, Otto Lenel, Ernst Levy, Franz von Liszt, Theodor Mommsen, Hans Kelsen, Ernst Kantorowicz, Karl Marx (in related debates), Max Weber (in methodological contexts), Gustav Radbruch, Dietrich Schäfer, Rudolf Sohm, Adolf Berger, and modern scholars connected to the Max Planck Institute and the University of Cologne. Influential articles examined sources like the Digest, the Codex Justinianus, the Lex Salica, and topics such as feudal tenure in the High Middle Ages, municipal law in Hanseatic League cities, canonical procedure from the Fourth Lateran Council, and the reception of Roman law in Renaissance Italy. Debates published in the journal resonated with scholarship by Paul Vinogradoff, Friedrich Carl von Savigny's contemporaries, and later comparative work associated with Silvia Ferino-Pagden and Peter Stein.
Historically issued in volumes and fascicles, the journal’s periodicity has varied with annual volumes, semiannual issues, and occasional special volumes dedicated to conferences at institutions such as the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, the Humboldt University, and the German Historical Institute. Formats include lengthy monographic articles, critical editions of legal texts, review essays critiquing works from presses like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, and historiographical notices linked to symposia at the European University Institute and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Scholars of Roman law, medieval studies, legal history, and comparative law have cited the journal extensively in work interacting with the Grundgesetz, analyses of the Holy Roman Empire, and studies of reception law in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. Its influence is evident in bibliographies compiled by the International Association of Legal History, in curricula at law faculties such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and in citation networks connecting to journals like Law Quarterly Review and Rivista internazionale di diritto privato e processuale. The journal remains a reference point for researchers accessing manuscripts in archives such as the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and scholars organizing conferences with partners like the Max Planck Society and the European Commission.
Category:Legal journals Category:German-language journals Category:History of law