Georg Jellineks Statuslehre: national und international Eine Würdigung und Aktualisierung anlässlich seines 100. Todestages im Jahr 2011

100 years ago, in 1911, Georg Jellinek died at the age of 60. Jellinek was famous not only in the world of German-speaking legal scholars, but in the English-speaking world as well. The American Journal of International Law commemorated his death with the following words: »In the recent death, January 13, of Professor Georg Jellinek . . . the students of political science have sustained an irreparable loss. This eminent publicist was not only one of the leading authorities of the world on political science, but he was also the recognized head of the juristic school of political thought in Germany.« Political thought in this citation means »Staatslehre«, and his 1900 treatise on »Staatslehre« is still one of the most prominent and often cited treatises on the concept of the state and its modern variants. In this article, the emphasis lies on a reconstruction and actualization of his »Statuslehre« for the 20th and 21st century. It is argued that the classical »Statuslehre« with its »status passivus, libertatis, activus and positivus« can be supplemented with »status europaeus, universalis, oecologicus and culturalis.« The article also points to the often forgotten fact that there were analogies to state-oriented status before the rise of the modern sovereign state and that there are analogies to state-oriented status in the social world. Seen from this point of view, Jellinek is a precursor of modern social theory and liberal communitarianism.