Jurists as gamekeepers. The law in Western Europe at the start of the modern age

Abstract

In this article two opposing views of the law and, consequently, jurists, are presented. One is the classic view of a planned law, based on a nationalist plan of social engineering. The other is a view of an «ecological» law, imitating the processes of life, in which jurists are hermeneutic scholars of the changeable schemes of society and values.