The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture

 

Cluster "Philosophy of Law and General Jurisprudence"

 

2^nd Section "Legal Methodology and Scientific Character of Jurisprudence, or: Contro­versy Between Positivism and Natural Law, Between Monism and Dualism, and the Pluralist Alternative of Human Studies"

 

Entry 2.14 "Aloïs Troller, Rechtserlebnis und Rechtspflege"

 

Selected, Elaborated and Discussed by Michael Walter Hebeisen

 

 

 

Author: Aloïs Troller

 

Title: Rechtserlebnis und Rechtspflege – Ein Fussweg zur Juris­pru­denz, für Ungeübte begehbar

 

Edition(s): Frankfurt am Main/ Berlin: Alfred Metzner, 1962, pp. 29-72

 

 

 

[Introduction]

 

Aloïs Troller’s primary earnings are to be found in the domain of intellectual property rights. However, he had a strong and lifelong inclination towards legal philosophy. He was the first author in Switzerland to adopt the newer tendencies in philosophy, i.e. existentialism and phenomenology as well as structuralism and to apply them fecundly to legal thought. The condensation of his occupation with existentialism, Troller layed down in his early introduction to jurisprudence, entitled “Legal Experience and Jurisprudence”, whereas his thoughts on phenomenological philosophy found its expression in the principal writing, entitled “Principles of Jurisprudence, Applicable Everywhere” from 1965; later, in 1975, he also published a classical writing on legal methodology, entitled “Foundations of a Self-Understanding Legal Methodology and Legal Philosophy”. Moreover, the relation between the disciplines of philosophy, legal philosophy and jurisprudence has been treated by the same author in a monography from 1971. All together, these writings stand for the so to say second high tide of legal philosophy, after the early pre-war culmination in Eugen Huber and Walther Burkhardt.

 

 

 

[Historical Situation and Systematic Context]

 

In his earliest of these masterful writings in legal philosophy, Aloïs Troller refers to existentialism in order to discuss the principal problems of jurisprudence in a very comprehensive and easy to understand way. There are, however, no references in terms of explicit indications or citations. But definitely the spirit of these arguments consists in a fecund adoption of the philosophical questions about the existence of man and of human community. In truth, the author even goes back to previous currents within the history of philosophical thought, i.e. the life philosophy as established by Wilhelm Dilthey (see nos. 2.24 and 3.8 of this Legal Anthology), and an orientation of legal philosophy, that relies on experience as a fundamental basis for the legal order and of jurisprudence, as inaugurated by Giuseppe Capograssi (Studi sull'esperienza giuridica (1932), in: Opere, vol. 2, Milano: A. Giuffrè, 1959, pp. 211 ss.), and as proposed by Miguel Reale (O direito como experiência (Il diritto come esperienza), Såo Paulo: Ediçåo Saraiva, 1968 (Milano: A. Giuffrè, 1973)). These two classical works of legal philosophy are highly recommended for further reading.

 

 

 

[Content, Abstracts/Conclusions, Insights, Evidence]

 

As a starting point, the legal order accounts for the basis of human existence. In the beginning of his introduction to jurisprudence, Aloïs Troller addresses the general object as well as the specific contents of legal order, before he defines the order itself: “Ordnung ist nie bloss das Festlegen von irgendwelchen Beziehungen, sondern stets das Ausrichten nach der leitenden Idee. Die Ordnung, das heisst die Regeln über die Beziehungen der einzelnen Objekte, über ihre festen und ihre wechselnden Standorte, versteht man demnach erst dann, wenn man die Idee begriffen hat, die das System entwerfen liess”. Order is not to be misunderstood in terms of logics, and it consists not only in a certain surface.

 

The deeper structure of order derives from nature, or to be more precise from human existence as an individual human being as well as human community. The bases of a just legal order are to be just in an existential philosophical sense, i.e. in an understanding founded in the experience of justice and injustice. In a long tradition arithmetical, geometrical, and distributive justice are discussed in a new light. “Gleichgewicht, Ausgewogensein, geordnete Verhältnisse des einzelnen zum Ganzen und umgekehrt begegnen uns in den mathematischen Formeln; von ihnen hängt das technische Gelingen ab; sie geben Kunstwerken die Geschlossenheit. Ins Gleichgewicht zu bringen sind alle Elemente, die im zu ordnenden Gesamten und den Teilen, die es bilden, erscheinen und wirken: in der Technik die Naturkräfte; bei den Kunstwerken je nach ihrer Art: Linien und Farben, Rythmen und Töne; bei den Menschen aber entsprechend ihrem Wesen das Körperliche, Seelische und Geistige”. Such an approach resembles natural law theory, apparently. The natural in an existentialistic understanding refers to human nature, to the nature of human being. “Naturrecht und positives Recht müssen zusammenwirken, damit wir eine gute Rechtsordnung erhalten. Das Naturrecht als Vorbild, zu dem wir hinstreben, ohne es je ganz zu erfassen und zu verstehen, und die verkündenden Gesetze, die festen Gewohnheiten und die Rechtsprechung, die uns nach Möglichkeit sichere Auskunft geben; das Naturrecht als das Bewegende und das positive Recht als das zur Ruhe Hinweisende entsprechen gemeinsam unserem dynamischen und statischen Wesen”. This reference to natural law remains ambiguous, however. Anyway, it indicates to a dynamic evolution of the idea, and identifies the underlying structure of human existence, respectively the ethical, moral and customary orders as the principle influencing legal order. “Rechtsordnung, Moral und gute Sitten sind für die menschliche Gemeinschaft unentbehrlich. Keines dieser drei Ordnungssysteme lässt sich ohne Zerrüttung der Gesellschaft aufheben. Sie sind gleichermassen zu achten und zu pflegen. Im täglichen Leben braucht man sich nicht zu überlegen, ob man im Bereich der einen oder der anderen Ordnung handelt. Rechtsgefühl, Gewissen und gesellschaftlicher Anstand leiten uns gemeinsam und geben der menschlichen Existenz Sicherheit und Ruhe. Die Ordnung des menschlichen Zusammenlebens ist ein unteilbares Ganzes. Deshalb hat es keinen Sinn, darüber zu streiten, ob der Beitrag des einen oder des anderen dieser drei Systeme wichtiger sei”.

 

In this general and integral view of legal order and other kinds of ordinating or normative forces within human community, peace is outlined as the main aim and purpose of law, according to Aloïs Troller. “Der Wille zum Rechtsfrieden ist ein Teil der Gerechtigkeit”.

 

 

 

[Philosophical Valuation and Jurisprudential Significance]

 

Post-World-War-II existentialist philosophy stands under the impression of the tragedy of failing legal order, obviously. The recourse to natural law within this current of existentialism and its reception by legal thought has barely nothing to do with concurring tendencies favoured by Catholic social philosophy. Such reference can be motivated sociologically (as it is the case in Hans Ryffel; see nos. 1.10 and 1.15 of this Legal Anthology) or, as it is the case in Aloïs Troller, be based on considerations about justice in a teleological framework. As a perusing aspect, and due to the professional practice, the aesthetical inclination of the author’s argumentation is interesting to follow, above all.

 

 

 

[Further Information About the Author]

 

Aloïs Troller, born 15 May 1906 in Wilihof, died 15 May 1987 in Luzern, graduated in Freiburg in 1837, after having studied jurisprudence at the Universities of Berne and Basel. He also followed his musical studies as a singer in Munich. From 1950 onwards, he taught as a private lecturer at the University of Freiburg, where he was entitled professor for intellectual property between 1957 and 1976 as well as for legal philosophy between 1971 and 1978. Above all, he influenced the development of intellectual property rights in Europe by his eminent work in two volumes “Intellectual Property Law” (“Immaterialgüterrecht”; 3. ed. 1983-1985).

 

His philosophical thought was mainly influenced by phenomenology, whose insights he tried to apply to jurisprudence.

 

For further information as well as for a complete bibliography, please refer to:

 

Werner Krawietz/ Walter Ott (Ed.): Formalismus und Phänomenologie im Rechtsdenken der Gegenwart, 1987.

 

 

 

[Selected Works of the Same Author]

 

Aloïs Troller: Überall gültige Prinzipien der Rechts­wissenschaft, Frankfurt am Main/ Berlin: Alfred Metzner, 1965; Idem: Die Aufgabe der Rechtsphilosophie, in: Schweizerische Juristen-Zeitung, vol. 69 (1973), pp. 97 ss.; Idem: Idem: Grundriss einer selbstverständlichen juristischen Metho­de und Rechtsphilosophie (Das Recht in Theorie und Praxis), Basel/ Stutt­gart: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1975; Idem: Rekon­struktion und Rechts­wirk­lichkeit – Ein Beitrag zu einem kritischen Rechtsrealismus, in: Rechts­theorie, vol. 11 (1980), vol. 2, pp. 137 ss.

 

 

 

[For Further Reading]

 

Aloïs Troller: Jurisprudenz auf dem Holzwege, in: Schriftenreihe der Internationalen Gemeinschaft für Urheberrecht, vol. 13, Berlin/Frankfurt am Main, 1959; Idem: Eugen Hubers Allgemeingültige Rechtsphilosophie, in: Gedächtnisschrift für Peter Jäggi, ed. Bernhard Schneider and Peter Gauch, Freiburg im Üechtland: Universitätsverlag, 1977.

 

 

 

14 November 2017                                                                     Michael Walter Hebeisen