The book is not only oriented towards students whose interests are centred on history, but also law students in general. The 13 chapters as select examples examine the historical foundations of law and its relation to the present day. The work offers a fascinating approach in the way it combines constitutional, civil and criminal law and examines their interrelation in respect to the history of ideas. The time period extends from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age. The select main subjects are: the Sachsenspiegel and Medieval Legal Thought, Town Law, Reception of Roman Law, Imperial Law and Imperial Reform, Constitutional Law of the Holy Roman Empire, Natural Law and the Enlightenment, the German League and the Historical School of Law, St. Paul's Church and the Constitutional National State, the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist Perversion of the Legal System, Post-war Germany, European Inheritance and Integration. The thoroughly revised new edition offers an additional section on the consequences of European legal developments. The detailed and enlarged bibliographies before each chapter make the reading and work book a valuable aid for more advanced studies at the same time. It includes a place, person and subject index.