It is savigny who systematically discusses the basic viewpoints of the school of historical law. He expressed the representative theory of this school by expounding the emergence, essence and foundation of law. Savigny believes that "law can only be produced and developed blindly, but not created by formal and rational legislative means." He pointed out: "A nation's legal system, like art and music, is a natural embodiment of their culture and cannot be imposed on them from the outside." . "Everywhere, law is driven by internal forces, not by the arbitrary will of legislators." Law, like language, never stops. Like other national consciousness, it is always in movement and development. "The law grows with the growth of the nation and grows with the growth of the nation. When this nation loses its individuality, the law tends to disappear. "

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Savigny believes that there are several stages in the development of law: in the first stage, the law directly exists in the national consciousness of * * * and is manifested as customary law. In the second stage, the law was manifested in the consciousness of jurists, and academic law appeared. At this time, law has a dual nature: on the one hand, it is a part of national life, on the other hand, it is a special science in the hands of jurists. Of course, the jurists who can promote the development of law at this stage must be those with keen historical vision and profound knowledge, and such jurists are still rare in Germany, so Germany does not yet have the conditions for unified legislation. The third stage is to compile the code. But even at this stage, we should legislate cautiously.

Regarding the essence of law, savigny believes that law is not intentionally created by legislators, but the embodiment of "national spirit" passed down from generation to generation; Only "national spirit" or "national consciousness" is the real creator of positive law. Savigny pointed out in Modern Roman Law System that the existence of law is organically linked with the existence and characteristics of a nation. In the early days of mankind, laws have their own characteristics, just as their language, customs and architecture all have their own characteristics. "The popular spirit that is equally active among all people is the soil that produces certain methods. Therefore, for everyone's consciousness, the Dharma is not accidental, but inevitable, and it is a kind of the same law. " This also reflects a nation's identity consciousness and belief. Therefore, legislators can't change laws any more than they can change language and grammar. The task of legislators is only to help people reveal the "national spirit" and discover what already exists in the "national consciousness".

Finally, savigny expounded the basis of law. He pointed out that the best source of law is not legislation, but habit, and only the law that lives among the people is the only reasonable law; Customary law is the most vital, and its status far exceeds that of legislation; Only customary law is the easiest to realize the fixity and clarity of legal norms. It is the best law to embody national consciousness.

After Hu Guo and savigny, Puchta used J.G. Fichte (1762 ~ 18 14) and Hegel's historical philosophy and dialectical skills in his book Customary Law to analyze the process from the national spirit of Roman legalists to expert rule. In On the Modern Mission of Legislation and Law, he inherited and developed savigny's theory of three stages of legal development, and thought that the evolution of law had gone through three stages: the simple period, the period of diversity (that is, the period of experience precedent) and the period of high unity of diversity and academics (that is, the period of scholars ruling by law). In this last period, only scholars can make laws. Puchta believes that this kind of jurist, as an "organ" of the country, has a special position in the formation of law in theory and precedent.

In Pendleton's textbook, Puchta is based on the deduction method of rational law theory advocated by the later historical law school, that is, instead of generalizing and abstracting concepts from various laws, propositions and precedents, dogmatic propositions and precedents are deduced from concepts. Although this method was later criticized as "inversion method", it laid a methodological foundation for the prosperity of "pendleton's Law" of historical law school.