Abstract:
How does the past relate to the present, how does being connect to becoming?" This question confronted legal history when it emerged as an academic discipline in early nineteenth-century Germany. Its significance reverberated throughout legal science -- but provoking three successive responses, which this paper categorises as past, pastness, and broad-present.
(i) In the nineteenth century, scholars viewed the past as a pristine ideal to be reconstructed for guidance, its unbreakable connection to the present forming a cornerstone of legal science.
(ii) The twentieth century, influenced by scientific and philosophical breakthroughs, saw past and present merge into a "pastness" that encompassed collective experiences and reflected a new understanding of law-making.
(iii) The twenty-first century has expanded this temporal awareness into what scholars call a "broad present" or "long-now"-which at any given time individuals try to make present (or represent) again.
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