I fondamenti comuni della vita politica. Considerazioni sulla dottrina generale dello Stato di Richard Schmidt

In this ironic, erudite and sharp review – required by Max Weber, in the first year of his co-editorship of «Archiv» – Lask unflinchingly tackles the weaknesses of the Schmidt’s survey and of his aim: to claim a practical preeminence in the Theory of the State. Master of Hermann Heller and one of the authorities in the subsequent political twisting of the Constitutional Theory, Schmidt is subjected to harsh criticism for his methodological syncretism, for the indefiniteness of his argument and the extreme thoughtlessness with classics and literature. This does not prevent Lask to recognize the usefulness and the acumen of his anthropological and ethnological analysis, as well as the importance of integration between the researches about public law and a closer examination of the administration of justice, besides, a main theme of the dawning Movement of Free Law.