The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture

 

Cluster "Philosophy of Law and General Jurisprudence"

 

1^st Section "Swiss Legal Culture as a Melting Pot of Modern Philosophical Influences – Overlapping Neo-Kantianism, Neo-Hegelianism, Realism, Prag­matism, Exis­ten­tia­lism, Phenomenology, and Beyond"

 

Entry 1.10 "Hans Ryffel, Naturrecht"

 

Selected, Elaborated and Discussed by Michael Walter Hebeisen

 

 

 

Author: Hans Ryffel

 

Title: Das Naturrecht – Ein Beitrag zu seiner Kritik und Rechtfertigung vom Standpunkt grundsätzlicher Philosophie

 

Edition(s): Bern: Herbert Lang & Cie., 1944

 

 

 

[Introduction]

 

In modern times, natural law theory repeatedly occurs as a possibility to found a positive or material concept of law based on experience. In this intention, the problem of natural law is everlasting, as it is pointed out by Guglielmo Salvadori shortly after the beginnig of the twentieth century: “Das moderne Denken leidet an einer Krisis, welche als vollkommener Gegensatz zu der philosophischen Krisis erscheint, an der schon vor zwei und einhalb tausend Jahren das griechische Denken unter dem Einfluss ganz derselben Ursachen gelitten hat: nämlich an der Unfähigkeit das Werden der Erscheinungen mit dem Sein der Dinge zu versöhnen, und demnach zu einer vollen Erfassung der Wirklichkeit zu gelangen” (Das Naturrecht und der Entwicklungsgedanke – Einleitung zu einer positiven Begründung der Rechtsphilosophie, Leipzig: Theodor Weicher, 1905). A kind of presentiment, we can already find in the three-volume “Ethics” by Wilhelm Wundt (Ethik – Eine Untersuchung der Thatsachen und Gesetze des sittlichen Lebens, Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1886, vol. 3), and in the current of so-called material ethics of values, as elaborated by Max Scheler and Nicolai Hartmann. Even before the Second World War, there is to be identified an inclination to re-found legal thought on natural law, especially within the Italian cultural context (mind the books for further reading by Igino Petrone, Giorgio Del Vecchio).

 

Under the impression of the perverting of the legal order by National Socialism in Germany, a strong turn to natural law theory occurs just after the Second World War. In combination with questions of material justice, this current showed not to be a temporary episode, but rather a lasting tendency (see the contributions by Erik Wolf, Werner Maihofer and René Marcic at the end of this entry). Often forgotten is the precondition for such a natural law turn, i.e. the common understanding of the concept of nature as a changing, dynamic reference to the ontological order, and not as a merely unalterable absolute. Within this situation, it can also be explained, why natural law theory has proved to be compatible the phenomenological philosophy (see no. 3.7 of this Legal Anthology).

 

 

 

[Historical Situation and Systematic Context]

 

In this historical context, Hans Ryffel, a Swiss scholar of jurisprudence and philosophy, handed in his thesis at the University of Berne in 1943, simply entitled “Das Naturrecht”, meant to be a critical contribution to justify natural law from a systematical-philosophical standpoint. And he finds himself in good company a few years later, when also eminent legal scholars as Helmut Coing, Hans Welzel, and Erik Wolf had published their principal writings on natural law (see the indications at the end of this entry). They all refer to the abovementioned tradition of legal thought and do not invent something radically new. The argumentation in detail, however, differs considerably from earlier references to natural law theory. Coing’s regress goes on human activity, social life in human community, and sentiment and consciousness as sources of legal valuation. Welzel’s contribution is a kind of history of natural law theory, including German idealism in Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and even further in conjunction with positivism, Neo-Kantianism, Marxism, so-called life philosophy, existentialism, before he concludes that the main intention of the revival of natural law theory consists in fighting relativism. This main intention is not only shared with Catholic milieus, but also with protestant theology (Emil Brunner, Karl Barth). “Man mag unter Naturrecht verstanden haben, was man wollte, stets schwingt in ihm der Gedanke mit, dass das Recht nicht einfach identisch ist mit dem Befehl einer bestehenden Macht. Am stärksten zeigt er sich in den idealistischen und theistisch-voluntaristischen Naturrechtslehre; aber selbst in der Lehre vom Recht des Stärkeren ist er noch leise spürbar; denn diese will, soweit sie überhaupt als Naturrecht auftritt, nicht darüber etwas aussagen, was faktisch besteht, sondern darüber, dass es richtigerweise so besteht oder so bestehen sollte”. In Wolf, we find a similar attempt for orientation within heterogenous references by legal thought to nature, and it is evident that it is not nature itself, but rather human nature that designates the point of reference.

 

 

 

[Content, Abstracts/Conclusions, Insights, Evidence]

 

The contribution elaborated by Hans Ryffel is based upon a clear distinction between theory and practice, and a preference of the latter, induced by the framework of Carlo Sganzini, who was professor of philosophy at the University of Berne, at that time. Above all, it is not grounded and founded in Catholic natural law thought, but rather on material legal philosophy, as elaborated by Julius Binder, Karl Larenz, and Walther Schönfeldt, three Neo-Hegelians, as well as by Hans-Helmut Dietze. The argumentation developed by Ryffel culminates in the concept of “potential relevance” of natural law claims as characteristic validity in contrast to the validity of the legal order, that has to be realised, actualised.

 

The early dissertation by Hans Ryffel already indicates the direction toward the later inclinations of the author, i.e. to anthropological, sociological and political-philosophical approaches (see no. 1.15 of this Legal Anthology).

 

 

 

[Philosophical Valuation and Jurisprudential Significance]

 

Generally speaking, the intentions of Hans Ryffel to rescue natural law theory as a kind of philosophy of the positive legal order cannot remain without ambiguities and contradictions, even if nature is broadly considered as human nature, as long as naturalism is not excluded decidedly. However, this position marks progress in comparison to Gustav Hugo for instance (see Fritz Eichengrün: Die Rechtsphilosophie Gustav Hugos – Ein geistesgeschichtlicher Beitrag zum Problem von Naturrecht und Rechtspositivismus, Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1935, pp. 81 ss.).

 

 

 

[Further Information About the Author]

 

Hans Ryffel, born 27 June 1913 in Berne, died 30 September 1989 in Thun, studied from 1932 onwards both jurisprudence and philosophy at the University of Berne. In 1943 he handed in his dissertation “Das Naturrecht“ at the philosophical-historical faculty. Nevertheless, he also had his patent as a lawyer in court already in 1938. From 1951 onwards he taught as a private lecturer in general philosophy, in particular philosophy of the law and theory of the state, before he was called to the „Hochschule für Verwaltungs­wissenschaften“ in Speyer in 1962, where he remained until 1979, and whose chancellor he was two times. His main interest was normative rules for human behaviour and his intention was to make evident the multiple dimensions of the legal and social sciences.

 

For further information and for a complete bibliography, please consult:

 

Erk Volkmar Heyen: Vom normativen Wandel des Politischen – Rechts- und staatsphilo­sophisches Kolloquium aus Anlass des 70. Geburtstags von Hans Ryffel, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1984.

 

 

 

[Selected Works of the Same Author]

 

Hans Ryffel: Das Naturrecht – Ein Beitrag zu seiner Kritik und Rechtfertigung vom Standpunkt grundsätzlicher Philosophie, Bern: Herbert Lang & Cie., 1944 (extract); Idem: Grundprobleme der Rechts- und Staats­philosophie – Philo­sophische Anthropologie des Politischen, Neuwied/ Berlin: Luchter­hand, 1969 (extract); Idem: Rechtssoziologie – Eine systematische Orien­tie­rung, Neuwied/ Berlin: Luchterhand, 1974 (extract); Idem: Philosophie und Leben, Antrittsvorlesung, gehalten am 14. Februar 1953, Bern: Paul Haupt, 1953; Idem: Zur anthropologischen Begründung des Rechts, in: Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, supplementary vol. 4, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1988, pp. 9ss.

 

 

 

[For Further Reading]

 

Helmut Coing: Die obersten Grundsätze des Rechts – Ein Versuch zur Nebegründung des Naturrechts (Schriften der Süddeutschen Juristen-Zeitung, vol. 4), Heidelberg: Lambert Schneider, 1947; Idem: Naturrecht als wissenschaftliches Problem, in: Sitzungsberichte der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, vol. 3 (1964), No. 1, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1965;

 

Giorgio Del Vecchio: Individuum, Staat und Korporationen, in: Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches Recht, ed. Eduard His, N. S. vol. 54 (1935), Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1935; Idem: Die Gerechtigkeit, Basel: Verlag für Recht und Gerechtigkeit, 1940; Idem: Studi sul diritto (Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell'Università di Roma, vol. 5), 2 vols., Milano: A. Giuffrè, 1958; Idem: Vom Wesen des Naturrechts, in: Grundlagen und Grundfragen des Rechts – Rechtsphilosophische Abhandlungen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963, pp. 55 ss.;

 

Werner Maihofer: Recht und Sein – Prolegomena zu einer Rechtsontologie (Philosophische Abhandlungen, vol. 12; Habilitationsschrift an der Universität Freiburg im Breisgau), Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1954;

 

René Marcic / Ilmar Tammelo: Naturrecht und Gerechtigkeit (Salzburger Schriften zur Rechts-, Staats- und Sozialphilosophie, vol. 9), Frankfurt am Main/ Bern/ New York/ Paris: Peter Lang, 1989;

 

Adolf Menzel: Zur Lehre vom Naturrecht, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Staatslehre (Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, vol. 210, no. 1), pp. 107 ss., Wien/ Leipzig: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1929 (reprint Glashütten im Taunus: Detlev Auvermann, 1976);

 

Igino Petrone: Filosofia del diritto, Regia: Università di Modena, 1897/ 1898 (2^nd ed. by Giorgio Del Vecchio, Milano: A. Giuffrè, 1950); Idem: Problemi del mondo morale meditati da un idealista, Palermo: Sandron, 1908; Idem: Il diritto nel mondo dello spirito – Saggio filosofico, Milano: Libreria Editrice Milanese, 1910;

 

Hans Ryffel: Recht und Moral nach dem neuzeitlichen Umbruch, in: Verrechtlichung und Verantwortung, ed. Helmut Holzhey and Georg Kohler, in: Studia philosophica, supplementary vol. 13, Bern: Paul Haupt, 1987, pp. 81-103; Idem: Gewissen und rechtsstaatliche Demokratie, in: Verwaltung im Rechtsstaat, Festschrift für Carl Hermann Ule zum 80. Geburtstag, ed. Helmuth Quaritsch, Köln: Heymanns, 1987, pp. 321-335;

 

Guglielmo Salvadori: Das Naturrecht und der Entwicklungsgedanke – Einleitung zu einer positiven Begründung der Rechtsphilosophie, Leipzig: Theodor Weicher, 1905;

 

Hans Welzel: Naturrecht und materiale Gerechtigkeit, Görringen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 4^th ed. 1962 (1^st ed. 1951);

 

Erik Wolf: Das Problem der Naturrechtslehre – Versuch einer Orientierung (Freiburger Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, vol. 2). Karlsruhe: C. F. Müller, 2^nd ed. 1959 (1^st ed. 1955).

 

 

 

15 November 2017                                                                     Michael Walter Hebeisen