Abstract
The Western legal tradition perceives itself as a tradition of reason. The concept of tradition insinuates continuity. It also evokes images of evolution. We are thus tempted to read, as a prominent example, Max Weber's account of how legal discourse developed its now proverbial 'formal rationality' as a narrative of evolution, embedded in an all-encompassing process of disenchantment and rationalisation.4 In this narrative, Weber acknowledged the role of medieval jurisprudence and the importance of the medieval 'rediscovery' of Roman law for his account. From the perspective of the sociologist, he focused in particular on the institutionalisation of academic legal training, which created a 'new stratum of legal honoratiores' and henceforth influenced legal thought and the continuous unfolding of 'formal rationality' through the 'rationalism of university trained lawyers'.
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