Reinhold Zippelius

Reinhold Zippelius (born 19 May 1928) is a German jurist and law scholar. Now retired, he was formerly the professor of the Philosophy of law and Public law at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg.

Life and career Reinhold Walter Zippelius was born in Ansbach (west of Nuremberg), the son of Hans Zippelius and Marie (Stoessel) Zippelius. He embarked on his study of jurisprudence in 1947 at the University of Würzburg and then at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg. In 1949, he switched to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München where between 1949 and 1961 he was supported by a scholarship-bursary. He received his doctorate in 1953. His habilitation (higher academic qualification), also from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and supervised by Karl Engisch, would follow in 1961. In 2002 The Faculty of Scientific Theory and History at Athens University awarded him an honorary doctorate ("doctor honoris causa").

In terms of legal theory, his themes include solving legal problems with the assistance of key concepts, comparison of cases and the question of what counts as "right", especially as regards the validity of unfair laws.

In terms of theory of the state, his themes include the legitimization and cultivation of democracy, especially regarding the rule of law, and the oligarchic components of pluralistic democracy, furthermore the federalism (the limitation of authorities, the functioning and the democratic ambiguity of federalism) and the problems of the bureaucracy.