Section 215
Original German
b. Das Daseyn des Gesetzes.
215 Die Verbindlichkeit gegen das Gesetz schließt von den Seiten des Rechts des Selbstbewußtseyns (§. 132. mit der Anm.) die Nothwendigkeit ein, daß die Gesetze allgemein bekannt gemacht seyen.
Die Gesetze so hoch aufhängen, wie Dionysius der Tyrann that, daß sie kein Bürger lesen konnte, — oder aber sie in den weitläuftigen Apparat von gelehrten Büchern, Sammlungen, von Decisionen abweichender Urtheile und Meynungen, — Gewohnheiten u. s. f. und noch dazu in einer fremden Sprache vergraben, so daß die Kenntniß des geltenden Rechts nur denen zugänglich ist, die sich gelehrt darauf legen, — ist ein und dasselbe Unrecht. — Die Regenten, welche ihren Völkern, wenn auch nur eine unförmliche Sammlung, wie Justinian, noch mehr aber ein Landrecht, als geordnetes und bestimmtes Gesetzbuch, gegeben haben, sind nicht nur die größten Wohlthäter derselben geworden und mit Dank dafür von ihnen gepriesen worden, sondern sie haben damit einen großen Act der Gerechtigkeit exercirt.
Musean translation
Machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from Hegel's German in the Berlin Nicolai first edition, dated 1821. Complete preface, introduction and sections 1–360, including the author's remarks and notes; no later Gans additions.
b. The Existence of the Law
215 The obligation toward the law includes, from the side of the right of self-consciousness (§ 132. with the Remark), the necessity that the laws be made universally known.
To hang the laws so high, as Dionysius the Tyrant did, that no citizen could read them—or else to bury them in the extensive apparatus of learned books, collections, decisions of divergent judgments and opinions, habits, and so forth, and in addition in a foreign language, so that knowledge of the valid right is accessible only to those who apply themselves to it learnedly—is one and the same wrong.—Those rulers who have given their peoples even a formless collection, as Justinian did, and still more a territorial code, as an ordered and determinate code of laws, have not only become the greatest benefactors of those peoples and been praised by them with thanks for it, but have thereby exercised a great act of justice.
Plain English translation
Independent machine-assisted Plain English translation made directly from the German first-edition source, not from the Musean edition or an existing English translation. Complete preface, introduction and sections 1–360 with the author's remarks and notes.
b) The Existence of Law
215 From the standpoint of the right of self-consciousness (§ 132. with the Anm.), being bound by the law requires that laws be made generally known.
Dionysius the Tyrant hung the laws so high that no citizen could read them. Burying them in a vast apparatus of learned books, collections of decisions with conflicting judgments and opinions, customs, and so on—and in a foreign language as well—makes knowledge of the law in force accessible only to people who devote scholarly study to it. These are one and the same injustice. Rulers who have given their peoples even an unshaped collection, like Justinian, and still more those who have given a law of the land as an orderly and determinate code, have not just become their peoples' greatest benefactors and received their grateful praise. They have also carried out a great act of justice.
About this section
Section 215 is part of Elements of the Philosophy of Right by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This page sets the German original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is section 217 of 362 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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