Comparative research in legal history today holds the promise of novelty despite numerous ‘non-comparative’ studies in legal history. Yet it presents a daunting challenge for a scholar, requiring them to enhance our understanding of the past by bridging the distance between domestic present and past law, as well as between domestic and foreign law(s). Maria Malt accepted this challenge in her book Die Rechtsnachfolge in Personengesellschaften im Deutschland und im Russland des 19. Jahrhunderts (Legal Succession in Partnerships in 19th-century Germany and Russia), based on her recently defended PhD thesis at Augsburg University under the supervision of Christoph Becker, who sponsored its publication as the 41st volume in the Augsburg series of studies on legal history. This review aims to present the design of the book and its major claims, followed by its evaluation from the point of view of a Russian legal historian.
The title of the book suggests revisiting the (allegedly) well-researched topic of the dissolution or continuation of a partnership under German law and Russian law in the nineteenth century. The author justifies the relevance of such a study with two major arguments: first, the impossibility of resolving the intricacies in contemporary corporate law without researching its medieval customs or even ancient Roman law; second, the ongoing doctrinal debates and litigation regarding legal consequences of such circumstances under succession and corporate law. The latter is substantiated by a wide array of textbooks, monographs, commentaries on the legislation, academic articles and dictionaries in the German and Russian languages.
DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2025.2580110
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