- Georg Jellinek
Georg Jellinek (
June 16 ,1851 ,Leipzig –January 12 ,1911 ,Heidelberg ) was a German legal philosopher. Jellinek is associated withlegal positivism but is critical of that theory on the grounds thatlaw should be understood as having an intrinsic relationship withsociety .Jellinek is best known for his essay "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" (1895), which argues for a universal theory of
right s, as opposed to the culturally and nationally specific arguments then in vogue (particularly that ofÉmile Boutmy ). Jellinek argued that theFrench Revolution , which was the focal point of 19th centurypolitical theory , should not be thought of as arising from a purely French tradition (namely the tradition stemming fromJean-Jacques Rousseau ) but as a close analogue of revolutionary movements and ideas inEngland and theUnited States .Jellinek, the son of
Adolf Jellinek , a rabbinical scholar, converted toChristianity . He taught at the Universities of Vienna, Basel, and Heidelberg. While teaching there, he wrote his most ambitious work, "Allgemeine Staatslehre" ("General Theory of the State") in 1900.External links
* [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/22.3/kelly.html Duncan Kelly, "Revisiting the Rights of Man: Georg Jellinek on Rights and the State"] . "Law and History Review" vol. 22, no. 3 (Fall 2004).
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