JHERING, RUDOLF von. – Jurist, born at Aurich on 22 August 1818, died at Gottinga on 17 September 1892. After studying at various universities, he received his doctorate in 1842 at Berlin and subsequently became professor at Basilea (1845), Rostock (1846), Kiel (1849), Giessen (1852), Vienna (1858), and finally Gottinga (from 1872 until his death).
At first an adherent of the historical school, he later broke with it and argued, in polemic with its representatives, that law is not a spontaneous product of the popular spirit, but the fruit of human needs and struggles. He thus highlighted the rational and voluntary elements in the production and evolution of law, as well as the exchanges that take place among peoples in this field—exchanges to which must also be attributed the phenomenon of immense importance represented by the reception of Roman law.
The first of his major works is Der Geist des römischen Rechts auf den verschiedenen Stufen seiner Entwicklung (4 vols., Lipsia 1852–65, 6th–7th ed. 1924; partial Italian translation, under the title Spirito del diritto romano, Milano 1855). In 1872 J. published Der Kampf uns Recht in Vienna (last ed. 1925; Italian translation under the title La lotta pel diritto, Milano-Napoli 1875, Bari 1935). Finally, the third among J.’s great works is Der Zweck im Recht (2 vols., Lipsia 1887–85, 8th ed. 1923). These must be supplemented by Beiträge zur Lehre vom Besitz, I, Der Grund des Besitzeschutzes (1868, Italian translation under the title Sul fondamento della protezione del possesso, Milano 1872), Die Jurisprudenz des täglichen Lebens (1870; 12th ed. 1903; Italian translation under the title La giurisprudenza della vita quotidiana, Bologna 1871), the volume Scherz und Ernst in der Jurisprudenz (Lipsia 1884, 9th ed. 1904), and the fundamental work Der Besitzwille. Zugleich eine Kritik der herrschenden juristischen Methode (Jena 1889), in addition to innumerable other articles and legal opinions. In 1857 he founded the Jahrbücher für die Dogmatik des heutigen römischen und deutschen Privatrechts, which after his death took the name Jherings Jahrbücher für ecc.