Schreber'S Law

Peter Goodrich looks beyond Judge Schreber's mental health to evaluate his jurisprudential theory. Goodrich analyses Schreber's Memoirs, interpreters and intellectual context to show how Schreber challenges the legal thought of his era and opens up a potentially vital approach to contemporary jurisprudence.

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Daniel Paul Schreber (18421911) was a senior German judge and jurist. He formulated a unique juridical theology of private life and developed a critical account of oikonomia, the practice of governance and administration. But his theoretical work was largely ignored due to his mental illness and his desire to be a woman in a time inhospitable to transitions. Now, Schreber's Law looks beyond Judge Schreber's mental health toreappraise his distinguished contribution to legal theory.
Peter Goodrich evaluates Schreber's jurisprudence by analysing the Memoirs and his interpreters in detail, and sets his work in the context of both the neo-Kantian pure science of fin de sicle German jurisprudence and 21st-century legal theory. In this way, Goodrich shows how Schreber's work challenges the legal thought of his era and opens up a potentially vital approach to contemporary jurisprudence.