RUDOLPH  VON  IHERING

RUDOLPH  VON  IHERING  has  often  been  described  as  the  last  of
the  Romanists.  Misleading  in  some  respects,  this  epithet  has
much  truth  in  it.  His  works  were  so  much  concerned  with
Roman  law,1  he  propounded  so  many  new  ideas  as  to  it,
gave  so  many  answers  of  his  own  to  problems  in  Roman  law,
that  I  wish  that  the  task  of  describing  his  labours  and  estimating
their  value  had  fallen  to  one  more  conversant  than  I  am  with  his
special  subject.
In  reading  his  books,  I  have  felt  again  and  again  the  need  of
that  close  acquaintance  with  the  civil  law  which  comes  only  with
long  study.  All  that  I  can  do  is  to  state  certain  facts  as  to  his
life  and  a  few  general  conclusions  formed  in  studying  with  some
care  Ihering's  writings.
There  is  little  to  be  said  about  the  events  of  his  life  ;  they  were
few  and  simple.  His  was  the  ordinary  life  of  German  professors
in  days  when  they  were  not  politicians,  and  the  pursuit  of  science
was  an  end  in  itself.  Ihering  was  born  August  22,  1 8 1 8,  at  Aurich
in  East  Friesland.  He  was  the  son  of  a  lawyer,  and  came  of  a
legal  stock.  He  was  educated  at  Heidelberg,  Munich,  Gottingen,
and  Berlin.  In  1843  he  became  a  Privatdocent  at  Berlin,  the  sub-
ject upon  which  he  lectured  being  Roman  law.  In  1845  he  was
called  to  Basle,  in  1846  to  Rostock,  in  1849  to  Kiel,  and  in  1852
to  Giessen,  where  he  spent  some  sixteen  years  of  fruitful  activity.
