Thoughts on Elemér Pólay’s early work: National socialism and Roman Law

Abstract

The paper deals with the publications of Elemér Pólay before and during WW2. It seeks to analyse them in their context, embedded in their contemporary political and academic environment. It focuses on one of Pólay’s early works, entitled ‘The German National Socialist Conception of Law and Roman Law’ (1938). Pólay’s paper is a valuable source on the academic situation in Hungary in the 1930s and 1940s, on the views of young scholars around Paul Koschaker in Berlin, and, indirectly, on Koschaker’s personal views concerning the National Socialist party’s manifesto.