Studi su Otto Lenel

Otto Lenel (1849-1935), author of the Palingenesia iuris civilis and the Edictum perpetuum, was a Jewish born jurist who succeeded in an academic environment marked by tension and prejudice. This volume traces his intellectual trajectory through three studies. The first reconstructs the vivid portrait drawn by Hugo Sinzheimer at the height of the German debate on antisemitism. The second examines Lenel’s defence of the teaching of Roman law in the age of the new Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, advocating a method capable of forming jurists attentive both to concrete cases and to the history of legal categories. The third enters the technical workshop of the Romanist, reconstructing – also through an unpublished letter – his exchange with Salvatore Riccobono on the transmissibility of penal actions and on the fictio litis contestationis, a central issue in early twentieth century interpolation scholarship. Together, these perspectives offer the portrait of a leading figure of European legal culture, combining rigour, intellectual courage, and a strikingly contemporary vision.