GermanLinx :: German and Careers

Greg Taylor

Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of South Australia; Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide

Greg Taylor As a comparative lawyer, I find a knowledge of German invaluable. Comparative lawyers compare the law of several different countries. Doing so can have many aims, such as promoting law reform by borrowing others' ideas, intellectual curiosity, advancing trade, commerce and other forms of exchange, or carrying out broader non-legal enquiries into how other societies organise themselves.

My key to a knowledge of those systems is the German language. The German Civil Code, enacted in 1896, is the most modern of the great codes of the European Continent. It has also influenced the development of the civil codes of other systems from Greece to Japan. It is a highly elaborate, but at the same time practical code which has had the ability to survive the twists and turns of German history this century.

It is not possible to get to know another legal system well without a mastery of the language in which it expresses itself. That is why the German language is indispensable to me in my work as a comparative lawyer.

Comparative law is becoming more and more important in a world which is becoming smaller all the time. Those who wish to trade with Europe will find that the ability to talk to Europeans in their own language is useful, and that a basic knowledge of their legal concepts will be even more useful. That is why comparative law is being increasingly studied here in Australia. The University of Adelaide, for example, runs a Master's programme in Comparative Law. I am delighted to be teaching there at the moment.

As a result of my knowledge of German, I was also fortunate enough to be able to spend a year in Germany studying for my Master's degree at Marburg in the state of Hessen. I am currently completing my Ph.D. there.

Finally, a knowledge of the German language has been an asset in my non-professional life as well. Berlin is supposed to be Europe's "coolest" city at the moment. As a comparative lawyer, I am not really qualified to judge whether this claim is true or not, but I can say that Berlin is Europe's most interesting city.

It is impossible to move more than a few hundred yards there without coming across another bit of fascinating history, good or bad - from the house where the Holocaust was planned to the offices where the attempt to blow up Hitler in July 1944 was planned. And it is not possible to get know Berlin well, or for that matter any of the other cities of Germany, without an understanding of the German language.

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