as continuing to affect court practice.146 Therefore, unless the actual existence and importance of the remaining sources of law were to be openly acknowledged by legislators and jurists alike, then both the application and development of law would first become incomprehensible to the public at large and then eventually to the body of professional jurists as a whole, since through a lack of acquaintance with the sources that develop primarily as the result of strict manners of argumentation, they would become increasingly alienated from the essence of legal methodology.147 Savigny appears mostly to have feared that the implementation of a Civil Code (apart from its revolutionary novelties) would worsen the ills of law and the legal order rather than alleviate them.To him the paradox was that any period in the need of a Code would be incapable of constructing (as well as administering) one, while any period capable of constructing (and handling) one would not need it.148 For various reasons the German process of codification did not reach its summit until 1 January 1900, when Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) became German law. The external forms of law (namely, the existence of a codification) are just one aspect of positivistic legal theory, and ultimately to be settled in political rather than scientific forums. As Savigny indicated inVom Beruf, the other aspect of positivistic legal theory is formal by nature and is thus to be settled in scientific forums.149 Hence, the essence of good law does not originate from the legislator alone. On the contrary:“ ... ein löblicher Zustand des bürgerlichen Rechts von drey Stücken abhängig seyn: erstlich einer zureichenden Rechtquelle, dann einem zuverlässigen Personal, endlich einer zweckmäßigen Form des Prozesses.”150 After dismissing the codification itself, Savigny then focused his p a r t v i i , c h a p t e r 2 600 146 Savigny, “Vom Beruf,” p. 91; Coing, Privatrecht 2, p. 18. 147 Savigny, “Vom Beruf,” pp. 92-93; Coing, Privatrecht 2, p. 18. 148 Cf. Savigny, “Vom Beruf,” pp. 106-116; Coing, Privatrecht 2, p. 18. 149 Savigny, “Vom Beruf,” pp. 106-124 150 Savigny, “Vom Beruf,” p. 106.
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