Abstract
This article serves as an introduction to this special issue on Gottfried Achenwall (1719–1772). Section I briefly sketches Achenwall’s intellectual biography, outlinesthe disciplines he taught at Göttingen and closes by highlighting the importance andextensive use of Achenwall’s textbooks, in particular his Ius naturae, at universities ineighteenth-century Germany. Section II provides an overview of Achenwall’s naturallaw doctrine as found in the first edition of his natural law textbook, the Elementa iurisnaturae (1750), touching on the principle of obligation and the system of duties, innateand acquired rights, the law of societies, public law and the justification of state power.In section III, we turn to Immanuel Kant’s engagement with Achenwall, pointing outgeneral features of Kant’s critical reception of Achenwall by means of a number ofexamples before discussing particular differences in the justification of legal coercion,the conception of the household society and marriage law, and, finally, the discussion ofthe right of resistance. Section IV provides a brief overview of the subsequent articlesthat deal with Achenwall’s theory of natural law.
