The similarities between what Hägerström referred to in that quotation and the German Begriffsjurisprudenz are obvious, especially since Begriffsjurisprudenzembraces a view that the law exists in the form of a logically closed system of reificated legal concepts considered to be truly and objectively normative for the actual material content of positive law.157 Hägerström points to Karl Bergbohm (1849-1927) as an example of a scholar who openly makes use of “mediaeval conceptual realism” by him arguing that it is possible, as well as necessary, for legal science to formulate an all-inclusive legal definition. Hägerström quotes: Any theory advocating such a conception will eventually become the target for a critique by an anti-metaphysician such as Hägerström. In view of the fact that the theoretical similarities betweenBegriffsjurisprudenzand natural law theory, especially with respect to the aspirations that are placed upon the possibilities of legal science, are manifest, it is scientifically feasible to deal with them as a single type of legal theory (especially as the scientific shortcomings of the respective theories can be summap a r t v i , c h a p t e r 4 430 “Die Definition des Rechts muss gleichsam eine hermetisch schliessende Hülle des gesamten Rechtsstoffes bilden. Ist sie genug gearbeitet, so passt alles Recht hinein, nichts davon bleibt draussen, und nichts passt hinein, als was Rechtsnatur hat.” “Nur eine Begriffsbestimmung kann die richtige, alle wirklichen Rechte aller Zeiten undVölker umschliessende sein, denn der formale Rechtbegriff ist selber nur einer.”158 157 Verdross,Abendländische Rechtsphilosophie; ihre Grundlagen und Hauptprobleme in geschichtlicher Schau, p. 164; HistorischesWörterbuch der Philosophie, Ritter, ed., vol. 1:A - C, Begriffsjurisprudenz; Coing, Europäisches Privatrecht: 19. Jahrhundert (Überblick über die Entwicklung des Privatrechts in den ehemals gemeinrechtlichen Ländern), vol. 2, pp. 47-53; Wieacker, History, pp. 255, 343-344, and 376-377. 158 Hägerström, Stat och rätt, pp. 21-21. Quotes from: Bergbohm, Jurisprudenz und Rechtsphilosophie: kritische Abhandlungen, pp. 73, 79 and 109. 159 However, Hägerström’s definition of Karl Bergbohm’s theory as metaphysical is not to be confused with it being identical to natural law, which was a theory and system of law that Bergbohm dismissed. See Deutsche und Europäische Juristen aus neun Jahrhunderten: eine biographische Einführung in die Geschichte der Rechtswissenschaft, Schröder and Kleinheyer, eds., pp. 466-467.
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