Published in 1820 by Hegel, the Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, a work known in France under the title of Principles of the Philosophy of Law, is one of the major works of modern philosophy. On the basis of a considerably expanded idea of law, corresponding to all the manifestations of what he calls “objective spirit”, Hegel successively exposes the structures of “abstract law” (which corresponds to private law), “morality” (which deals with the relationship of the acting subject to moral norms), and finally “ethics”, a notion which designates the set of institutional configurations (family, civil society, State) organizing the action of individuals and social groups in the context. of modernity. The study of civil society, incorporating certain achievements of the emerging political economy, had a profound influence, particularly on Marx. The study of the modern (post-revolutionary, constitutional) State seeks to respond to some of the aporias of modernity and concludes with an examination of universal history.