Von Savigny's Treatise on Possession: Or the Jus Possessionis of the Civil Law. Sixth Edition. Translated from the German by Sir Erskine Perry (1848)

Landmark work in the history of jurisprudence. Originally published: London: R. Sweet, 1848. xvi, 432 pp. The only English translation of his first work, and originally published in German in 1803, this treatise on the nature of the legal concept of possession made Savigny's reputation as a jurist of the first order. "of all books upon law, the most consummate and masterly." John Austin, The Providence of Jurisprudence Determined, xxxviii Friedrich Carl von Savigny [1779-1861], an influential German jurist and scholar of Roman law, was a founder (with Gustav Hugo) of the historical school of jurisprudence, which opposed the natural school of thought. He was a professor of Roman law at the University of Berlin from 1810-1842, and later enacted law reforms in the powerful position of Prussian Minister of Justice. He was the author of Of the Vocation of Our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence (1814) and the four-volume System des Heutigen Romischen Rechts (History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages) (1840-1849).