to ones that properly pertain to republics only. In his own words, the Roman Empire and the code of law it bequeathed was in a "monstrous state of incomplete usurpation, which one could call neither monarchy nor republic, which seemed to derive from both, but no longer rested on any basis; a state of affairs in which the forms and locutions of the republic had been preserved, but where, in fact, there remained only an absolute despotism, founded solely on military power." (vol. I, ch. VII of the Restauration der Staatswissenschaft). Commentary on Haller’s work The Swiss historian Béla Kapossy contextualizes Haller's thought by placing it in his Swiss background, and cites his criticism of Roman law as anticipating the field of conceptual history. Kapossy quotes Haller on the substance of his critique: The term "patrimonial state" would later make its way into the sociology of Max Weber. Haller also exerted a great influence on modern German jurisprudence and the debates over whether the constitutional form of the Holy Roman Empire could be said to constitute a modern state, as recounted by Austrian medievalist Otto Brunner in his work Land and Lordship (1939). References Sources Liedke, Herbert R. The German Romanticists and Carl Ludwig von Hallers Doctrines of European Restoration, in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology (1958) Further reading Guggisberg, Kurt. Carl Ludwig von Haller, Frauenfeld/Leipzig, 1938. Kruska, Alexander. Die Polemik der Restauration: Metapolemische und ideengeschichtliche Betrachtungen zum Initialband der Restaurationsschrift Karl Ludwig von Hallers. Bielefeld, 2019. (transcript-verlag.de PDF). Neumann, Sigmund. Die Stufen des Preussischen Konservatismus, Emil Ebering, 1930. Pfister, Christoph. Die Publizistik Karl Ludwig von Hallers in der Frühzeit. 1791–1815, Bern: Herbert Lang; Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang 1975. Reinhard, Ewald. Carl Ludwig von Haller – Ein Lebensbild aus der Zeit der Restauration, Köln, 1915. Rommen, Heinrich Albert. The State in Catholic Thought, B. Herder Book Co., 1945. Valjavec, Fritz. Die Entstehung der Politischen Strömungen in Deutschland, 1770-1815, Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1951. External links Commentary on vols. 1-4 of Haller's Restoration of Political Science (patrimonial and military states) Commentary on vol. 6 of Haller's Restoration of Political Science (on republics) English-language Haller readings and critical commentary Swiss jurists Swiss political philosophers Swiss Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism People from Bern 1768 births 1854 deaths