We are glad to give notice of the release of the volume Hegel and German Public Law, by Nathaniel Boyd (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026).

From the publisher’s website:

Nathaniel Boyd’s pathbreaking book argues that Hegel’s political thought was shaped by German public law. This tradition of legal discourse, especially through its imperial tradition, was crucial to European modernity, influencing foundational philosophical concepts such as sovereignty, the state and the diverse legal systems that emerged from them. Hegel and German Public Law examines the impact of Johann Jacob Moser, Johann Stephan Pütter and Johann Christian von Majer on Hegel’s intellectual development. It reveals how the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire informed his early speculative system and constitutional theory. In doing so, Boyd extends our understanding of Hegel’s relation to European legal and political thought while offering an original interpretive framework for Hegel’s absolute idealism and unfolding institutional theory of the state.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Imperial Public Law in Statu Cadentis Imperii: Johann Jacob Moser
2. The Empire as the Impersonal Nexus of the Composite State: Johann Stephan Pütter
3. The Twilight of German Imperial Public Law: Johann Christian von Majer
4. The Empire of Ethical Life: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index