Duguit's novel
objectivist theory of public law, developed in amicable rivalry with his colleague
Maurice Hauriou of Toulouse, was to have a lasting effect on the development of these parts of law. In Duguit's opinion, the
state was not a mythical
Sovereign inherently superior to all its subjects, or even a particularly powerful
legal person, but merely a group of people engaged in
public service, the activity constituting and legitimising the state. Although critical of notions such as
sovereignty, democracy, legal personhood and even
property to the extent it is not legitimised by a social purpose,[1] he distinguished himself from
Marxists by emphasizing the function of the economy for the development of the state.
Works
L'État, le droit objectif et la loi positive. Extracted as "Theory of Objective Law Anterior to the State" in Modern French Legal Philosophy, trans. Mrs Franklin W. Scott and Joseph P. Chamberlain (New York, Kelly, 1916; South Hackensack NJ, Rothman, 1968), pp. 235–344
"Objective Law". Columbia Law Review. 20: 817. 1920. "Objective Law II, III and IV". Columbia Law Review. 21: 17, 126 and 242. 1921. Translated by Margaret Grandgent and Ralph W. Gifford.
References
Jones, H. S. (1993). The French State in Question: public law and political argument in the Third Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P.
ISBN978-0521431491.
Motte, Olivier J. (2001). "Duguit, Léon". In Michael Stolleis (ed.). Juristen: ein biographisches Lexikon; von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (in German) (2nd ed.). München: Beck.
ISBN3-406-45957-9.
Notes
^De Rivera, Jose Antonio Primo. "The Basic Elements of a Liberal State." El Fascio. N.p., 16 Mar. 1933. Web.