Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar [key], 1808–81, Swiss jurist and political scientist. Trained at the Univ. of Berlin, he taught law at Zürich, Munich, and Heidelberg. He expounded the organic theory of the state in Allgemeines Staatsrecht (2 vol., 1851–52; partial tr. 1892), carrying the theory to a complete equation of the life of a state and the life of a person. In Deutsches Privatrecht [German private law] (2 vol., 1853–54), he attempted to contrast the indigenous elements in German law with those derived from Roman law. Bluntschli was of some political importance in Baden as a spokesman of the liberal Protestant middle class favoring unification of Germany under Prussia, and he was a founder of the Institute of International Law at Ghent.
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