The Emergence of Human Autonomy in Law

Abstract This chapter is the first on freedom. In the history of ideas, something new happens in law. In the search for freedom, I shift from the sphere of historiography to the legal sphere, where freedom and justice are first married. I show that law turns away from the idea of human dependency upon gods or demons to allow for legal responsibility beyond notions of determinism. Law differentiates between intentional and unintentional deeds to overcome the idea of objective guilt. With this, the subject, as a responsible being, emerges as a legal person more autonomously than before and independent from the gods. In the area of law, the idea of autonomous self-responsibility gains more and more space. A culture capable of reflecting upon the human being’s motives, wishes, and reasons of behaviour has acquired a foundation for freedom since the capacity to reflect on the motives, wishes, and reasons of one’s behaviour is a necessary basis for free will.