} _/. JURISTS: PROFILES IN LEGAL THEORY / Jurists: Profiles in Legal Theory General Editor: William Twining Max Weber Anthony T. Krontnan STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Stanford, California 1983 Stanford University Press Stanford, California © Anthony Kronman 1983 Originating publisher: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd, London, 1983 Stanford edition printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 0-8047-1140-2 LC 82-80923 Contents Preface Vl List of works by Max Weber Vll Chapter 1. Introduction 1 2. Methodological foundations 6 3. Authority 37 4. Formal legal rationality 72 5. The forms of contractual association 96 6. Law and capitalism 118 7. The disenchanting religion 147 8. Modernity 166 Biographical note 189 Suggested further reading 194 References 198 Index 212 Preface I first encountered the work of Max Weber more than ten years ago while a graduate student in the philosophy programme at Yale, and am indebted to my friend and teacher Kenley Dove for having impressed upon me the philosophical importance of Weber's work. Bruce Ackerman, Joshua Cohen, Robert Cover, Mirjan Damaska, Owen Fiss, Reinier Kraakman, Arthur Leff, Adina Schwartz and William Twining all made helpful comments on earlier drafts and I have benefited from their suggestions. Arthur Leff died before this book was completed, leaving me with an undis chargeable debt of gratitude for his generosity and wise criticism. Diane Hart helped me prepare the manuscript and I am thankful for her patient and professional assistance. I am also grateful to the Yale Law School for two summer research grants and to Harry Wellington, Dean of the Law School, for his encouragement and support. To my wife, Nancy, I owe the wholeness that gives everything its relish and delight. List of works by Max Weber German texts. l. Zur Geschichte der Handelsgesellschaften zm Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1889). 2. Die romische Agrargeschichte in ihrer Bedeutung fur das Staats und Privatrecht (Stuttgart, 1891 ). 3. Die Verhaltnisse der Landarbeiter im ostelbischen Deutschland (Berlin, 1892). 4. Gesammelte Aufsiitze zur Religionssoziologie (Ti.ibingen, 1924). 5. Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Soziologie und Sozialpolitik (Ti.ibingen, 1924). 6. Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftgeschichte (Ti.ibingen, 1924) 7. Gesammelte Aufsiitze zur Wissenschaftslehre 2nd edn (Ti.ibingen, 1951 ). 8. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie 4th edn (Ti.ibingen, 1956). 9. Gesammelte Politische Schrzften 2nd ed (Ti.ibingen, 1958). 10. Wirtschaftgeschichte. Abriss der universalen Sozial- und Wirtschaftgeschichte 2nd edn (Berlin, 1958). English translations. l. The Methodology of the Social Sciences (trans. E. Shils and H. Finch, Glencoe, Ill., 1949). MSS 2. Roscher and Knies: The Logical Problems of Historical Economics (trans. G. Oakes, New York, 1975). RK cs 3. Critique of Stammler (trans. G. Oakes, New York, 1977). 4. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (trans. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, New York, 1946). FMW 5. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (trans. T. Parsons, New York, 1958). PE 6. The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism (trans. H. Gerth, Glencoe, Ill., 1952). 7. Ancient Judaism (trans. H. Gerth and D. Martindale, Glencoe, Ill., 1958). AJ 8. The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism (trans. H. Gerth and D. Martindale, Glencoe, Ill., 1958). RI 9. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (ed. G. Roth and C. Wittich, New York, 1968). ES 10. Max Weber on Law in Economy and Society (trans. M. Rheinstein and E. Shils, Cambridge, Mass., 1954). LES 11. GeneralEconomicHistory(trans. F. Knight,NewYork, 1961). 12. The Rational and Social Foundations of Music (trans. D. Martindale, J. Riedel, and G. Neuwirth, Carbondale, Ill., 1958). 13. Max Weber on Universities (trans. E. Shils, Chicago, 1973). 14. The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations (trans. R. I. Frank, London, 1976). 15. 'The Social Causes of the Decay of Ancient Civilization' (1950) Journal of General Education pp. 75-88 (trans. C. Mackauer). 16. 'Socialism,' in Max Weber: The Interpretation of Social Reality (trans. J.E.T. Eldridge, London, 1971) pp. 191-219. All references in the text are to English translations of Weber's writings. Abbrevia tions are used for certain frequently cited works. For convenience, references to the Rechtssoziologie give the appropriate passage both in Economy and Society and in the separate edition of the Rechtssoziologie published under the title Max Weber on Law in Economy and Society. In late antiquity, amid a levelled world that had lost its faith, the individual looked to Stoic philosophy for support. For philosophy Socrates showed the way, because as a real man he had been, done and suffered what philosophy for centuries thereafter sought to understand. In the world into which we are entering, in a time of mass accumulation and mass domination, of universal utili tarianism, crushing misery and banal happiness, it will again be the task of the individual to seek his philosophical truth. No objectivity will teach him. Perhaps the open secret of a man such as Max Weber will speak to him and kindle him. If this happens, we may say: Those who understand failure and death can approach him. He will remain incomprehensible to those who, entranced by the beauties of the world which Max Weber also enjoyed in moments of serenity, forget death. Karl Jaspers