STAMMLER, RUDOLF

born Feb. 19, 1856, Alsfeld, Hesse died April 25, 1938, Wernigerode, Ger. German jurist and teacher who is considered to have been one of the most influential legal philosophers of the early 20th century. Stammler was professor of law in Marburg (188284), Giessen (1884), Halle (18851916), and Berlin (191623). By distinguishing the concept of law, which is a purely formal definition, from the idea of law, which is the realization of justice, he emphasized, unlike most 19th-century legal philosophers, the search for ideals with which law ought to conform. Those ideals, in Stammler's view, were not immutable but reflected the degree of social harmony possible in a particular place and time. One of his major works, Die Lehre von dem richtigen Rechte (1902), was translated by Isaac Husik as The Theory of Justice (1925).