Social Utilitarianism
- Theory
- Social Utilitarianism
- Jurist
- Rudolf von Jhering
- Description
Jhering's social utilitarianism (interest theory) treats law as a means to an end (Zweck im Recht), never an end in itself. Its purpose is to secure and balance legally recognized interests, reconciling individual desires with social needs — a view that reacted against Savigny's historical school and later shaped Roscoe Pound's sociological jurisprudence.