Einseitige private Rechtsgestaltung

Since the 19th century, German jurisprudence has been dealing with the similarities among various forms of private unilateral law shaping, and in 1903 Emil Seckel coined the term » Gestaltungsrechte « (right to alter a legal relationship by unilateral declaration). Christian Hattenhauer begins by exploring a selection of cases in classical Roman law as well as in sources of ancient German law for which unilateral law shaping is carried out today. He then shows which steps were necessary for this development, which converged in the 19th century: the examination of the individual elements of the conclusion of a contract in the tradition of canon and natural law, which was indispensable for ascertaining that the legal action is an act of legal significance which creates a binding obligation for another individual, and the separation of material and procedural law.