Comments on: 213 https://grundlinien.de/en/213/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:56:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 By: Hegel (Simple) https://grundlinien.de/en/213/#comment-3653 Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:56:49 +0000 https://grundlinien.de/?p=900210#comment-3653 § 213: What the law can govern

We must apply right to real life. To property and contracts, which grow ever more tangled. Also to family and marriage, but only in their external sides.

What can the law not govern?

Morality. Disposition. No one can prescribe love, faithfulness and sincerity. They belong to the inner life.

An example:

The story goes that China once had such a law. A man must love his first wife more than his other wives. Whoever did not got a beating. This is absurd. You cannot order love.

Only with the oath is it different. There we rely on conscience.

Summary: The law governs the external sides of life. Morality and inner disposition lie beyond its reach.

]]> By: Eduard Gans (Additions) https://grundlinien.de/en/213/#comment-2196 Wed, 29 May 1833 14:00:10 +0000 https://grundlinien.de/?p=900210#comment-2196 In the higher relations of marriage, love, religion, and the state, only those sides can become an object of legislation which, by their nature, are capable of possessing externality. Meanwhile, the legislation of different peoples makes a great difference here. Among the Chinese, for example, it is a law of the state that the husband should love his first wife more than the other wives he has. If he is convicted of having done the opposite, he is punished with a beating. Likewise, in older legislations there are found many prescriptions concerning fidelity and honesty which are inappropriate to the nature of law, because they fall entirely within the inner realm. Only in the case of the oath, where matters are committed to conscience, must honesty and fidelity be taken into account as something substantial.

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