ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author expounds the law of humanity, and derives from it the legitimation of state power. Since 1933 Germans have had much reason to reflect upon the law of humanity and the limits of state power. The law imposes upon us a duty to restrict our own liberty so that it accords with the lawful liberty of others. A man who violates the rights of others, will not confine his own liberty within the limits required for a possible legal harmony with the liberty of others. Any subjection of men which is not designed to secure the rights of all is unjust, despotic, and contrary to the law of humanity. Full freedom of economic action may well prove an instrument for reducing the poor to dependence on the arbitrary power of the rich. As it has this effect, it contravenes the constitutional law of state power; and it has to be limited by positive law.
