Eugen Ehrlich's idea of "the living law" has been so in fluential that many of legal sociologists in Japan look upon the sociology of law as the study of it. But in his main work, "Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law" translated by W. L. Moll, Grundlegung der Saziologie des Rechts" (1913), there never exists such a view.
Ehrich said, "the center of gravity of legal development…from time immemorial has not lain in the activity of the state but in Society itself, and must be sought there at the present time." And he firmly rejected the notion of the omnipotence of the state. Therefore, it must be very important for him toclarity the reality of the state.
The author points out the three interrelated aspects of the state-one of the groups which constitute total society, an organ of society, and the greatest, all inclusive association-in his work. These concepts' the author suggests, are helpful to the studies of the above problem, for example "the interventionist state".