Aus der Schweizer Werkstatt

Abstract

This year’s symposium of »The European Forum of Young Legal Historians« (Lucerne, May 2005) was dedicated to the problem of »Legal Transfer in History«. The report reveals the rather broad spectrum of lectures dealing with transfer phenomena in ancient law up to the legal history of the 20th century. To some extent the presentations included neighbouring disciplines and their politological, sociological, philosophical and historical arguments. It was noteworthy that the theoretical basis was often wanting, e. g. lectures on ancient law were exposed to a problematic relationship between their subject and the relatively modern concept of transfer. Often the concept of transfer was so vaguely framed that quite different and contradictory but also thought-provoking conclusions and questions were posed; for apart from its legal function, the question is posed as to what role the transfer of law plays in an ideological, economic or academic context.