Rudolf Stammler

Karl Eduard Julius Theodor Rudolf Stammler (19 February 1856 – 25 April 1938) was an influential German philosopher of law. He distinguished a purely formal concept of law from the ideal, the realization of justice. He thought that, rather than reacting and adjusting the law to economic pressures, the law should be deliberately steered towards the current ideal.

In the later part of the 19th century the state was guiding Germany through rapid industrialization, which was creating new social problems. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had obtained legislation under which the state gave a degree of unemployment insurance and old age support, but other laws also needed change.^[3] The first draft of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (German Civil Code) was published in 1887, and would lead to enactment of a revised code in 1900. In 1888 Stammler gave his support to the draft code, rejecting the fatalist views of nationalists such as Otto von Gierke who thought a people''s law must unfold naturally.^[2] He also opposed the view of Ferdinand Lassalle and the socialists that economic forces determine the law.^[2]

Stammler became a leading thinker in European jurisprudence, along with Gustav Radbruch (1878–1949) and Hans Kelsen (1881–1973), all of whom were greatly influenced by neo-Kantian philosophy.^[4] He claimed that law plays a central role in shaping the economy, in contrast with the Marxist view that the laws evolve naturally to support a given economic system.^[5] Rudolf Stammler died on 25 April 1938 at Wernigerode, Saxony-Anhalt, aged 82. His son, Wolfgang Stammler, broke the family''s legal tradition and became a professor of German literature.^[1]