The two great works by which Hinschius established his fame are the _Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae et capitula Angilramni_ (2 parts, Leipzig, 1863) and _Das Kirchenrecht der Katholiken und Protestanten in Deutschland_, vols, i.-vi. (Berlin, 1869-1877). The first of these, for which during 1860 and 1861 he had gathered materials in Italy, Spain, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Belgium, was the first critical edition of the False Decretals. His most monumental work, however, is the _Kirchenrecht_, which remains incomplete. The six volumes actually published (_System des katholischen Kirchenrechts_) cover only book i. of the work as planned; they are devoted to an exhaustive historical and analytical study of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and its government of the church. The work is planned with special reference to Germany; but in fact its scheme embraces the whole of the Roman Catholic organization in its principles and practice. Unfortunately even this part of the work remains incomplete; two chapters of book i. and the whole of book ii., which was to have dealt with "the rights and duties of the members of the hierarchy," remain unwritten; the most notable omission is that of the ecclesiastical law in relation to the regular orders. Incomplete as it is, however, the _Kirchenrecht_ remains a work of the highest scientific authority. Epoch-making in its application of the modern historical method to the study of ecclesiastical law in its theory and practice, it has become the model for the younger school of canonists. See the articles s.v. by E. Seckel in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (3rd ed., 1900), and by Ulrich Steitz in the _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, vol. 50 (Leipzig, 1905). HINTERLAND (German for "the land behind"), the region lying behind a coast or river line, or a country dependent for trade or commerce on any other region. In the purely physical sense "interior" or "back country" is more commonly used, but the word has gained a distinct political significance. It first came into prominence during 1883-1885, when Germany insisted that she had a right to exercise jurisdiction in the territory behind those parts of the African coast that she had occupied. The "doctrine of the hinterland" was that the possessor of the littoral was entitled to as much of the back country as geographically, economically or politically was dependent upon the coast lands, a doctrine which, in the space of ten years, led to the partition of Africa between various European powers.