ABSTRACT
The perceived association between the idea of the incarnate Word and the law of the nation in this period was clearly expressed by Professor Christ, a participant in one of the Conferences of University Teachers of German Law, German History and German Language (collectively known as the Germanisteri) in 1846: 'A law', he declared, 'can only be a national law, for law is nothing other than the customs of a people which assert themselves in the sphere of law. These customs are the actual law, and from this point of view law is nothing but the revelation of nationality, the incarnation of the life of the soul, as it reveals itself in a particular nation' (ibid.). He argued for national law on the basis of the principle of individuality which 'runs through the whole of moral and physical nature' so that 'every person is by nature different in body and in his way of thought and action'. According to this law of individuality 'every nation in its deepest foundations has an essentially different individual form and therefore possesses forces which operate differently in the creation of law' (Thomas, 1951,103).146 As we shall see, the idea of the law as (in some sense) the incarnation of the soul of the nation was not confined to German models of nationhood.
