Gustav Radbruch was a German legal philosopher whose name and work have become widely known outside Germany only since the end of World War II. During his lifetime, the interests and activities of scholar, politician, and reformer of law were closely intermingled. After World War I, Radbruch became active in the Social Democratic Party and twice served as minister of justice of the Weimar Republic. His principal work was the draft of a new criminal code. Later he held a chair of law at the University of Heidelberg, from which he was dismissed by the Nazi regime. After World War II he was recalled and exercised a predominant influence in the reorientation of German legal education and philosophy until his death.

Radbruch's legal philosophy, generally known as "relativism," is closely akin to the position of his friend and teacher Max Weber. Radbruch believed, like...