On the Civil Improvement of the Jews

This volume is the first complete translation of Christian Wilhelm Dohm’s treatise on the Civil Improvement of the Jews. It provides a novel access to a classic of the emancipation debate by placing it not only in the context of the Enlightenment, but also of the Holy Roman Empire and its pluralistic legal order. Christian Wilhelm Dohm’s treatise on the Civil Improvement of the Jews, published in 1781 is arguably the most important treatise on the emancipation of the Jews. This volume is the first complete translation – with the help of students of the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna – of this classic of the emancipation debate from the original German and French into English. It provides a novel access to the emancipation debate by placing Dohm and his work not only in the context of the Enlightenment, but also of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and its pluralistic legal order. It, thus, provides new interpretations of Dohm’s arguments, which hitherto have remained enigmatic or simply been overlooked.