GERMAN CIVIL LAW IN 19TH CENTURY BRAZIL: TEIXEIRA DE FREITAS AND THE HISTORICAL SCHOOL OF LAW

Abstract

Objective: From the understanding provided by the concept of cultural translation, the proposal of the present investigation focused on dimensioning the influence and circulation of ideas from the German Historical School and from the Jurisprudence of Concepts in the intellectual development of the jurist Augusto Teixeira de Freitas, whose work shaped the modern brazilian law.

Methodology: This research used an empirical and deductive method, starting from the analysis of primary sources consistent in the author's publications at the time, combined with a bibliographic review of the legal historiography on the nineteenth century, as pertinent.

Results: German theoretical trends were absorbed in Brazil in the context of the circulation of legal models from Europe. The analysis of Teixeira de Freitas' legal production leads to the conclusion that the author placed himself, in this context, between fidelity to the legal tradition of Portuguese praxis and the innovative contributions of the Enlightenment. The influence exerted on his work and trajectory by the German Historical School and the subsequent systematizing conceptualism, in turn, is undeniable, so that the author used a combination of different theoretical sources in favor of the modernization of Brazilian law.

Contributions: To think about the circulation of theoretical trends in a transnational character, based on the concept of cultural translation, allows the processes of normativity formation to be understood in a nuanced and complex way, considering the resignifications that arises in specific contexts. This demonstrates, therefore, the essentiality of the historical-legal study to critically question the unconscious assumptions of dogmatic disciplines, revealing the historicity behind the proposed solutions.