The Law Under the Swastika Studies on Legal History in Nazi Germany
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
- Publish date: 02/01/1998
Stolleis studies a wide range of legal fields -- constitutional, judicial, agrarian, administrative, civil, and business -- arguing that all types of law were affected by the political realities of National Socialism. Moreover, he shows that legal traditions were not relinquished immediately with the onset of a new regime. For the first time we can see clearly the continuities between the Nazi period and the postwar period. The law under National Socialism did not make a complete break with the law during the Weimar Republic, nor did the law of the Federal Republic nullify all of the laws under National Socialism. Through a rich and subtle investigation, Stolleis shows how the legal profession and the political regime both reacted to the conditions of the period and molded the judicial system accordingly.
Breaking the conspiracy of silence held by the justices in the postwar period, Stolleis stresses the importance of researching Nazi law in order to confront ethical problems in today's legal profession.