V. Aufbruch in die Moderne? Der Humanismus und die Jurisprudenz des 16. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Summary The article discusses the notion of ‘legal humanism’, i.e. the encounter between jurisprudence and fundamental ideas of Renaissance humanists. Legal historians are fundamentally divided over the impact of humanistic thought on legal development. While some influential authors regard the insights and ideas of Renaissance humanists as largely irrelevant to legal thinking, others identify a group of ‘legal humanists’ and describe them as modernisers whose innovative forms of ‘humanistic’ legal thinking initiated developments that ultimately led to modern law. In view of this debate, the article analyses writings of Valla, Budé, Zasius, Alciato and other humanists in their historical contexts. It will be shown that these authors cannot be properly described as ‘modernisers’ as they did not advance new ideas that transformed legal thinking. Nevertheless, the conceptions of time and the philological insights of Renaissance humanism irritated established forms of scholastic legal thinking and made jurists reflect on their scholarship. The new forms of legal thinking that emerged from those 16th-century discussions did not make use of specifically humanistic, philological techniques, but should rather be seen as specifically legal responses to the humanistic irritation.