The Theory of Law and Civil Society

PREFACE.

SEVERAL Courses of lectures delivered by me at the University of Budapest during the past ten years, induced me to attempt a systematical exposition of the elements of the Theory of Law and Civil Society in a treatise, originally published last year in Hungarian.

The principal reason for reproducing it in English, and bringing it before the English public, is my conviction of the inaccessibility of the Hungarian language to any wide circle of readers, and the belief that some of the doctrines set forth in this volume may possibly be of interest to those engaged in an historical or analytical study of the notions and theories of law.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters, particularly, which relate to an inquiry into the idea and characteristics of Society, contain novel matter, inasmuch as the train of scientific thought upon which they are founded has not, as far as I am aware, been as yet followed out to the consequences I have endeavoured to establish. As to the other contents of this volume I can lay but small claim to originality, but venture to hope that a detailed account of general legal theories and their history may not be considered superfluous.

The choice of English as the vehicle of my ideas is, moreover, but the due acknowledgment of a moral debt of gratitude. The impulse to the investigations I have tried to pursue, the methods applied, the conceptions of science. and its functions from which I have started, and the ideals I have striven to attain, are derived chiefly from the study of

modern English theoretical writers upon law, and of an English school of philosophy. Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy suggested most, though not all of the general views set forth in these pages, and, on the other hand, Sir Henry S. Maine's publications-which have given rise and date to a transformation of the historical and scientific study of law, not less important, nor less healthy in its tendency than that initiated by Savigny-have indicated the direction in which results were to be sought. To these two great masters of contemporaneous thought I am indebted for the matter of this book, more than I am able to indicate in detail.

Among other modern English writers, many valuable suggestions and materials have been afforded me by Professor Holland's "Elements of Jurisprudence," by F. Pollock's "Essays in Jurisprudence and Ethics," by Professor Clark's "Practical Jurisprudence," and by I. M. Lightwood's "Nature of Positive Law."

Of German works, I have especially made use of Professor Voigt's "Das jus naturale, aequum et bonum und jus gentium der Römer," and of Professor Leist's "GræcoItalische Rechtsgeschichte," whilst amongst Hungarian books, the late Leo Beöthy's "Beginnings of Social Development" has furnished me with a great number of available data.

In conclusion, I have to express my thanks to Mr. Maurice Black, of Budapest, without whose kind assistance I should have experienced some difficulty in expressing my thoughts in an English garb.

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