PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Hegel: Remarks on Intellectual Property, Berlin (1821)

Source: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Libr.impr.c.n.mss.oct.126

Citation:
Hegel: Remarks on Intellectual Property, Berlin (1821), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: d_1821

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_d_1821

Full title:
Remarks on Intellectual Property as published in the First Part (Abstract Rights) of 'Elements of the Philosophy of Rights' (Chapter Property (Alienation Sec. 41-43 and 61-71) plus Hegel's annotations (title, p. 47,48, 63-76)

Full title original language:
Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts

Abstract:
The justification of copyright through a personality argument as presented by Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel is often regarded as the 'most powerful alternative to a Lockean model of property'. Hegel's remarks on intellectual property were printed as part of his 'Elements of the Philosophy of Rights', a book that was based on the lectures he gave at the University of Berlin between 1818 and 1831. The document presented in our digital archive is a private copy of the first print edition of 1821 that was annotated by Hegel himself for use in subsequent lectures. In Hegel's view, property is something that enables the exercise of subjective freedom rather than a consequence of civil liberties. Thus, literary property is also a manifestation of a person's free will. Hegel's concept of individual, personal rights as a basis of copyright was influenced by Kant and Fichte and had some bearing on the later theories of Gareis, Gierke and Bluntschli, even if Hegel's legal theory was not referred to generally by German jurists in the second half of the nineteenth century.

1 Commentary:
commentary_d_1821

Bibliography:
  • Schroeder, Jeanne L., 'Unnatural Rights: Hegel and Intellectual Property', 'Cardozo Law School, Legal Studies Research Papers' 80 (2004)

  • Hughes, Justin, 'The philosophy of Intellectual Property', 'The Georgetown LJ' 77 (1988): 287-366

  • Drahos Peter, 'A Philosophy of Intellectual Property' (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1996)


Related documents in this database:
1832: Gans: On the right to perform published stage plays

Author: Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-1831)

Publisher: Reimer

Year: 1821

Location: Berlin

Language: German

Source: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Libr.impr.c.n.mss.oct.126

Persons referred to:
Brutus, Marcus Junius
Gans, Eduard
Griesheim, Karl Gustav von
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hotho, Heinrich Gustav
Spinoza, Baruch de

Places referred to:
Athens
Turkey

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
N/A

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
Enlightenment, the
Reformation, the
almanacs
anthologies
compilation
contract
copy
copying, concept of
creativity
divisibility
duration
idea/expression
imitation
inventions
inventors
learning, the advancement of
moral rights
novelty
originality
personality theory
plagiarism
prescription
property analogies
property theory
property theory, authors' property
public domain
reputation
transferability
universities

Responsible editor: Friedemann Kawohl


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