The Book That Launched the German Historical School of Jurisprudence. Written in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Vocation proposed a common legal code for the newly liberated German states and attacked Thibauts advocacy of a code based on natural law. Though he aimed in part to improve the administration of justice, Savigny hoped that a common legal system would promote a larger goal: a spirit of unity among Germans.

Frederick Carl von Savigny [1779-1861] was an important German jurist and scholar of Roman law. A principal member of the historical school of...

The Book That Launched the German Historical School of Jurisprudence. Written in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Vocation proposed a common legal code for the newly liberated German states and attacked Thibauts advocacy of a code based on natural law. Though he aimed in part to improve the administration of justice, Savigny hoped that a common legal system would promote a larger goal: a spirit of unity among Germans.

Frederick Carl von Savigny [1779-1861] was an important German jurist and scholar of Roman law. A principal member of the historical school of...