In the revolutionary years 1848–49 the Czech historian František Palac¬ký was forced to re-formulate his response to the question What is (the Czech) nation? From starting points kin to German romanticism and to German national-liberal historiography in particular, he defines both a nation and a (national) public as well as the “basic equality of nations in rights and dignity” as necessary conditions of constitutional order. He elaborates an original solution of the relation between the cosmopolitan and the national cultures, of nation in a political and in a cultural sense, of the principle of self-determination and of shared sovereignty. He defends the thesis that in Palacký’s individual texts in the spring of 1848 we can follow his testing of the suitability of individual pre-political projects of the nation for Czech policy within the framework of the shared Danube state. He stresses particularly his relationship to the tradition which sought to transform the territorial conception of the nation, including bilinguality, into a distinctive conception of a modern nation (Bolzano/Woltmann, Young Čechie/Young Bohemia [at the time the Czech and the German designation for the Czech lands]).
The name of Karel Jaromír Erben is closely associated in the public mind with poems and fairy tales. Some people may recognize him for the connection of his artistic work to ethnographic research. Others may have registered his political engagement in the revolutionary year of 1848. Or, they may recall him as an archivist or a translator – and, in this connection, as an author of Czech professional terminology. Only lawyers and historians probably know that it was largely legal terminology (because Erben studied law), and that he also engaged in other activities in the field of law, even though they were not essential in his rich life. One hundred and fifty years since Erbenʼs death is a good opportunity to remember his work in the field of law (in the context of his unkind fate and rich professional activities). Namely his effort to make older Czech legal documents available to public, his participation in the translation of key contemporary legislation into Czech, his work on Czech legal terminology and, last but not least, his editorial work for Právník magazine.
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Jméno Karla Jaromíra Erbena se u nás každému spojí s tím, že byl básníkem a pohádkářem. Někdo si uvědomí návaznost jeho umělecké tvorby na etnografická bádání. Jiní možná zaregistrovali jeho politické angažmá v revolučním roce 1848. Dalším se zase třeba vybaví jeho archivářská profese nebo překladatelská práce a s ní nerozlučně svázaná tvorba české odborné terminologie. Zpravidla jen právníci a historici budou vědět, že šlo z velké části o terminologii právnickou, protože Erben vystudoval právo, a že na poli práva vyvíjel i další aktivity, i když v jeho bohatém životě nebyly tím zásadním. Sto padesát let, které uplynuly od Erbenovy smrti, je vhodnou příležitostí připomenout si v kontextu jeho nelehkého osudu a bohatých profesních aktivit právě jeho právnické působení: zpřístupňování starších českých právních památek, podíl na překladu klíčových dobových právních předpisů do češtiny, tvorbu české právnické terminologie a v neposlední řadě redaktorství v Právníku.
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