The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture

 

Cluster "Philosophy of Law and General Jurisprudence"

 

4^th Section "Legal History and the Historicity of Law Within the Swiss Legal Context"

 

Entry 4.3 "Peter Liver, Freiheit"

 

Selected, Elaborated and Discussed by Michael Walter Hebeisen

 

 

 

Author: Peter Liver

 

Title: Von der Freiheit der alten Eidgenossenschaft und nach den Ideen der französischen Revolution

 

Edition(s): in: Die Freiheit des Bürgers im schweize­rischen Recht, Festgabe zur Hunderjahrfeier der Bundesverfas­sung, hrsg. von den Iuristischen Fakultäten der schweizerischen Univer­sitäten, Zürich: Polygraphischer Verlag, 1948, pp. 37-52

 

 

 

[Introduction/Historical Situation and Systematic Context]

 

Peter Liver was an eminent legal historian, originating from the Canton of Graubünden. On the occasion of the Centenary of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1948 (for two other contributions on this occasion, see nos. 5.7 and 5.8 of this Legal Anthology), he characterised freedom as the leading idea of the renewal of the much elder Swiss Confederation with a considerable distinction. This difference is not more and not less than the change from feudal liberties and freedoms, as granted by the principalities, to a republican idea and concept of political freedom. This development has undergone some crucial historical events, namely in the periods of so-called Helvetic and Regeneration.

 

In philosophical terms, these epochs signed the reception of idealistic ideas in Switzerland, for instance of the provenance of Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Consequently, the political idea of freedom correlated in some degree to the philosophical idea of liberty within an idealistic context (for specific information, consult Martin Bondeli: Kantianismus und Fichteanismus in Bern – Zur philosophi­schen Geistesgeschichte der Helvetik, sowie zur Entstehung des nach­kantischen Idealismus (Schwabe Philosophica, vol. 2), Basel: Schwabe & Co., 2001).

 

 

 

[Content, Abstracts/Conclusions, Insights, Evidence]

 

With respect to freedom, tradition in Switzerland has not been without ruptures, and the change from elder concepts of liberty, corresponding to the idea of Swiss Confederation, to the newer republican idea and ideal of liberty in the Swiss Federal State denotes a deep conversion. “Mit den folgenden Ausführungen soll der Versuch gemacht werden, die verschiedenen Arten und Formen altschweizerischer Freiheit festzustellen und ihre Merkmale näher zu bestimmen, um besser erkennen zu können, was davon in der Bundesverfassung von 1848 bewahrt und erneuert, und was zerstört oder überwunden worden ist”. In his essay, Peter Liver undertakes the task to determine the elder uses of liberty in order to understand the modern understanding of liberty better, by historical difference.

 

The change goes from the associational, corporatist principle to the liberal conception of social and political community, and from autarchy to participation as the main effect of liberties in the sense of independence. Thereby the natural law principles of collective liberties become an integrated part of the new federal structure of the republican nation state.

 

 

 

[Further Information About the Author]

 

Peter Liver, born 21 August 1902 in Flerden, died 10 September 1994 in Ittigen, first studied history at the Universities of Jena, Berlin and Zurich, before he received his doctorate in Jurisprudence from the University of Berne (1928 resp. 1931). Between 1939 and 1944 he was professor at the well-known Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, before moving to the University of Berne, where he was an academic teacher in legal history and private law.

 

 

 

[Selected Works of the Same Author]

 

Peter Liver: Der Begriff der Rechtsquelle, in: Rechtsquellenprobleme im schweizerischen Recht, Festgabe der rechts- und wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Bern für den Schweizerischen Juristentag 1955 (Zeitschrift des Bernischen Juristen­ver­eins, vol. 91bis), Bern: Stämpfli & Cie., 1955, pp. 1ss.

 

 

 

[For Further Reading]

 

Martin Bondeli: Kantianismus und Fichteanismus in Bern – Zur philosophi­schen Geistesgeschichte der Helvetik, sowie zur Entstehung des nach­kantischen Idealismus (Schwabe Philosophica, vol. 2), Basel: Schwabe & Co., 2001;

 

Richard Feller: Berns Verfassungskämpfe 1846, Bern: Herbert Lang & Cie., 1948;

 

Carl Hilty: Öffentliche Vorle­sungen über Hel­vetik, Bern: Max Fiala, 1878;

 

Leonhard von Muralt: Alte und neue Freiheit in der helvetischen Revolution (Akademische Antrittsrede 1941), Zürich: Schulthess & Co., 1941; reprinted in: Der Historiker und die Geschichte, Ausgewählte Aufsätze und Vorträge, Festgabe für Leonhard von Muralt, Zürich: Schulthess, 1960, pp. 147-160.

 

 

 

11 December 2017                                                                      Michael Walter Hebeisen