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The General State Laws for the Prussian States (german: Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten, ALR) were an important
code of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
, promulgated in 1792 and
codified by
Carl Gottlieb Svarez
Carl Gottlieb Svarez, originally Schwartz (27 February 1746, Schweidnitz - 14 May 1798, Berlin) was a Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the ...
and
Ernst Ferdinand Klein
Ernst Ferdinand Klein (3 September 1744 in Breslau – 18 March 1810 in Berlin) was a German jurist and prominent representative of the Berlin Enlightenment.
Career
Klein studied law at Halle under Daniel Nettelbladt, a follower of Christian ...
, under the orders of
Frederick II. The code had over 17,000 articles,
and covered fields of
civil law,
penal law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law ...
,
family law
Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.
Overview
Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include:
* Marriage ...
,
public law,
administrative law
Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), ad ...
etc.
History
Development
Frederick I of Prussia
Frederick I (german: Friedrich I.; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function h ...
wanted to create a uniform set of laws, but it was not started until the reign of
Frederick II. Frederick's idea was not only to create a unified set of laws, but to make them clear and eliminate possible manipulations by different interpretation. A previous attempt, ''Project eines Corporis Juris Fridericiani'' (1749–51), by
Samuel von Cocceji, proved unsuccessful.
The first version was called the ''General Code for the Prussian states'' (german: Allgemeines Gesetzbuch für die Preußischen Staaten, AGB, 1792). Svarez and Klein, who were under the orders of
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...
, presented a project in 1785, but the general state laws for the Prussian states were finally codified in 1794. Frederick had recently overruled his judiciary who had ruled against the millers Arnold in the
Miller Arnold case
The Miller Arnold case () is a landmark 18th-century German court case and cause célèbre during the reign of Frederick II that raised issues relating to the concept of judicial independence. It is an example of the ' () of Frederick  ...
, imprisoning judges who had disobeyed his orders. As a figure keen to maintain his prestige as an
Enlightened Absolutist
Enlightened absolutism (also called enlightened despotism) refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhance ...
, codification of the laws was a desirable response to his un-Enlightened break of the 'rule of law'.
Usage
The interpretations of the code's usage are contradictory; some interpret the laws as well known for being simple to read and interpret, without much abstract, being rather an every-day regulating laws, but others point out that while the code was written in German, it used an incredibly
casuistic
In ethics, casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending theoretical rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and ...
and imprecise language, making it hard to properly understand and use in practice.
After the
second partition of Poland
The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian W ...
, it was promulgated on the annexed territories as subsidiary law, intended to accelerate the process of their integration with
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
.
The Landrecht was a typical example of a law of the transition period between
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
and
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
, where old institutions of feudal law (ordinations, separate property, class divisions,
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...
privileges, subjection of peasants) existed alongside modern ones (definition of property).
The Landrecht stopped functioning after the system was reformed (
Stein–Hardenberg reforms) and the feudal remnants were removed.
References
External links
* German full text: Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten (01.06.1794)
Einleitung (Introduction)Erster Theil (I. Part)Zweyter Theil (II. Part) on
OpinioIuris: Die freie juristische Bibliothek retrieved on 3 March 2013.
retrieved on 3 March 2013.
{{Authority control
Civil codes
Prussian law
18th century in Prussia
1790s establishments in Prussia