Vom Beruf unserer Zeit für Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissenschaft : the call of our time for European legislation and legal science

The title of this lesson serves as a pretext against the temptation to draw too close a parallel between the unification of German law in the 19th^century and various initiatives aimed at unifying, or even codifying, European (private) law today. The official bodies of the European Union (with the exception, to a certain extent, of the Parliament) have shown considerable reservations about a European civil code project, but doctrinal initiatives have been all the more active. It would appear that plans for a codification along the lines of the national codifications of the ^19th and 20th^centuries have been abandoned in the short term, in favor of strategies aimed at bringing closer together the concepts and principles, and above all the modes of reasoning, of jurists belonging to national traditions and cultures that are still very different. The "common frame of reference" drafted on the basis of individual initiatives reflects a realization that it is not enough to standardize rights if the divergences between legal cultures are not reduced. Even in the field of private law, reducing these divergences must undoubtedly be approached differently from one branch to another. The impact of human rights in virtually all areas of law - far beyond private law - is undoubtedly one of the most effective effects in bringing together rights and legal cultures in Europe.