Gottlieb Hufeland

Who was Gottlieb Hufeland?

Gottlieb Hufeland was a German economist and jurist.

Born in Danzig, in the province of Royal Prussia, Hufeland was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, and completed his university studies at Leipzig and Göttingen. He graduated at Jena, and in 1788 was there appointed to an extraordinary professorship. Five years later he was made ordinary professor.

His lectures on natural law, in which he developed with great acuteness and skill the formal principles of the Kantian theory of legislation, attracted a large audience, and contributed to raise to its height the fame of the University of Jena, then unusually rich in able teachers. In 1803, after the departure of many of his colleagues from Jena, Hufeland accepted a call to Würzburg, from which, after but a brief tenure of a professorial chair, he proceeded to Landshut. From 1806 to 1812 he acted as burgomaster in his native town of Danzig. Returning to Landshut, he lived there until 1816, when he was invited to Halle, where he died.

Hufeland's works on the theory of legislation:

Versuch über den Grundsatz Naturrechts

Lehrbuch des Naturrechts

Institutionen des gesammten positiven Rechts