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Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy pp 1–5Cite as

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von: Legal Philosophy

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Biography of a Lawyer

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born in 1646 in Leipzig and died in 1716 in Hannover. He was a lawyer by profession. Upon completing his bachelor studies of law and philosophy in Leipzig, he became juris doctor at the University of Altdorf (near Nürnberg) in 1667. Many of his early works are devoted to legal issues. His academic dissertation, Specimen quaestionum philosophicarum ex jure collectarum (A VI i 69–95); his bachelor’s thesis, Specimen certitudinis seu demonstrationum in jure exhibitum in doctrina conditionum (A VI i 369 430); and his dissertation, Disputatio inauguralis de casibus perplexis in jure (A VI i 231–256), all show that Leibniz was a genius in this field of research. In 1667, in the famous Nova methodus discendae docendaeque Jurisprudentiae (A VI i 259–364), he published his new ideas about teaching law.

Leibniz was offered a professorship at Altdorf, but he preferred to work in the legal profession. In the following 4 years, he worked in Mainz...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. European University Institute, Florence, Italy

    Giovanni Sartor

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Matthias Armgardt

Authors
  1. Matthias Armgardt
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  2. Giovanni Sartor
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Correspondence to Giovanni Sartor .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Law, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Gianfrancesco Zanetti

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Armgardt, M., Sartor, G. (2019). Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von: Legal Philosophy. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_434-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_434-1

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