Ernst Joseph Cohn

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Ernst Joseph Cohn (born August 7, 1904 in Breslau , † January 1, 1976 in London ) was a British - German lawyer and lawyer . He was a committed Reform Jew who served in the British Section and an author of The Manual of German Law . Cohn's publications include 14 monographs, co-authored and co-edited works, and more than 180 articles. The Manual of German Law is his best known work. Of the two editions, the British Foreign Office sponsored the first. The first volume of the work appeared in 1950; a second volume was published in 1952.

Life

Cohn was born to Jewish parents, Max Cohn and Charlotte Russ. His father was a businessman and active in the German Democratic Party . After graduating from the Johannesgymnasium Breslau in 1922, he studied law at the universities of Leipzig , Breslau and Freiburg im Breisgau . In 1925 he passed the first state examination in law and obtained his doctorate summa cum laude in 1927 with Eberhard Friedrich Bruck on a topic on the legal effects of declarations by a messenger, followed by the second state examination in 1929 . Between 1925 and 1929 he was a trainee lawyer in Breslau, in 1929 he completed his habilitation while working as a court assessor in Breslau at the Frankfurt University, again at Brück, who had been appointed to Frankfurt, and then taught there as a private lecturer. From the winter semester 1930/31 he was a professor (deputy chair) at the University of Kiel for two semesters , in 1932 he became a professor in Breslau before he was forced to retire as a Jew in 1933 under the law to restore the civil service after “student disturbances”. For this reason he emigrated to Switzerland in the same year and from there to Great Britain in 1937 , where he began to study British law. Between 1937 and 1939 he was a barrister and lecturer in London and a professor at King's College London before joining the British Army . After the end of the Second World War , Cohn was a professor at various universities and also held visiting professorships abroad. On October 17, 1957, the faculty succeeded in re-tying Cohn to Frankfurt by being appointed honorary professor for “German and English private law and civil law”. Cohn was a board member of the British section of the World Jewish Congress and Leo Baeck College and chairman of the Society for Jewish Studies . The University of Cologne and the University of London awarded Cohn an honorary doctorate . Cohn was married three times and had a son who taught European history in Breslau.

PhD degrees

University of Wroclaw

The University of Wroclaw awarded Cohn the title of Dr. iur. in 1925 when he was 21 years old. He published his doctoral thesis entitled The Receiving Messenger (1927). In his study, Cohn analyzed disputes arising from contractual relationships in which the intentions of the parties (declarations of intent) were transmitted via messengers. The essay by Ernst J. Cohn (1904–1976) , published in Jurists Uprooted: German-Speaking Emigré Lawyers in Twentieth Century Britain , states that Cohn's doctoral thesis "particularly impressed two of his examiners, the well-known professor of criminal law." That was Professor Eberhardt Schmidt and Professor Eberhard Friederich Bruck .

University of Frankfurt

The Goethe University Frankfurt am Main awarded Cohn the degree of Dr.habil. in 1931. After his habilitation in 1929, Cohn published his habilitation thesis in 1931 with the title The legal business dealings for those whom it concerns in dogmatic and comparative law . Cohn's study analyzes certain instances in which an intermediary is negotiating a contract between a third party and a party who for some reason is not named but is disclosed at the time of performance of the contractual obligations. Heinrich Lange examined Cohn's study in 1932. After teaching at the law faculties in Kiel and Frankfurt, Cohn was given a permanent position at the law faculty of the University of Breslau.

University College London

In Great Britain, Cohn received his PhD. from University College London in 1945 on the basis of his dissertation entitled Comparative Jurisprudence and Legal Reform ; This work is cataloged in EThOS with EThOS_ID as uin = uk.bl.ethos.788055 uk.bl.ethos.788055.

Awards

In 1957, Cohn was made an honorary professor in Frankfurt and held four lectures on English law in each of the two semesters. In 1964, Cohn received honorary doctorates from both the University of Cologne and the University of Frankfurt. King's College London appointed Cohn visiting professor of European law in 1967. Cohn received the rank of officer of the Order of the British Empire "for services to English law".

Cohn's colleagues published the Festschrift Liber Amicorum Ernst J. Cohn in 1975 : Festschrift for Ernst J. Cohn on his 70th birthday shortly before his death.

Fonts

Manual of German Law

Cohn was mainly responsible for two editions of the Handbook of German Law. The first and the second volume appeared in 1950 and 1952, a second edition also appeared (in two volumes) in 1968 and 1971. The additional title "Handbuch des Auswärtigen Amt des Deutschen Rechts" reflected the sponsorship of the British Foreign Office . Cohn had previously worked for SHAEF . In this organization, Cohn was tasked with planning a future military occupation of Germany. The Foreign Office then asked Cohn to draft German law for the occupying power. This unit became known as The Control Commission for Germany (British Element, CCG / BE). The National Archives, Kew Gardens keep this organization's records. The first volume of the 1950 edition (edited by His Majesty's Stationery Office) lists the contents as “I: General Introduction; Civil and Commercial Law "and" II. Private International Law; Civil litigation; Criminal law; Criminal proceedings ". Cohn and Martin Wolff (Martin Wolff) are credited with the authorship of this volume. The second volume (also published by HMSO in 1952) goes to Cohn, G. Meyer and K. Neumann. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law has published the second edition. The two volumes were published in 1968 and 1971. The first volume of this edition dealt with “General Introduction [and] Civil Law”, and this “Second completely revised edition” was awarded to Cohn with the support of W. Zdzieblo from Munich. In the second volume, which dealt with the subjects of “commercial law, civil procedural law, conflict of laws, insolvency law, nationality law and East German family law”. Cohn was named as the editor. Three authors have been credited (along with Cohn); these were OC Giles, M. Bohhdork and J. Tomass. In Ronald Graveson's appreciation of Cohn's work, Cohn is presented as a "recognized expert on German law" and a "constant and fearless advocate of the majestic and historical principles of the Civil Code".

Selected bibliography

Cohn wrote, co-authored, or co-edited the following works.

  • Reform of the intervention process: A contribution to the reorganization of civil procedure law (procedural law treatises), Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1931. ISBN 978-3-642-98741-0 .
  • On the doctrine of the nature of abstract business (new series, 15th volume, 1st issue, special edition archive for civilist practice), Tübingen: JCB Mohr, 1931.
  • Legal Aid for the Poor , co-authored by Robert Egerton , London: Stevens, 1947.
  • The realm of the lawyer: Legal profession and legal status in England , Heidelberg: Süddeutsche Zeitung Verlag, 1949.
  • Manual of German Law , London: His Majesty's Stationary Office , 1950 [vol 1], 1952 [vol 2]. Cohn's co-authors are named above.
  • German assets in Great Britain / German Enemy Property: A complete overview (Study Society for Private Foreign Interests eV special print; translator Gisela Raspe), Düsseldorf: Econ-Verlag, 1951.
  • The English Judgment Day , Cologne: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1956.
  • The adjacent rights in English law (International Society for Copyright EV, Vol. 28), Berlin: F. Vahlen Verlag, 1963.
  • Evidence by way of legal assistance in civil proceedings by the English court (Zeitschrift für Zivilprozess; ZZP 80th volume, issue 3/4), Cologne: C. Heymanns, 1967.
  • The Uniform Laws on International Sales Act 1967: A Commentary , co-authors Ronald Harry Graveson under Diana Graveson, London: Butterworth's, 1968.
  • Manual of German Law , London: Institute of International and Comparative Law , 1968 [vol 1], 1971 [vol 2]. According to WorldCat, the work contains: "Parts of a former ed. Published in 1950 for the Foreign Office". Cohn's co-authors for this second edition are named above.
  • English arbitration law seen through European eyes , London: Institute of Arbitrators, 1972.
  • Handbook of Institutional Arbitration in International Trade: Facts, Figures and Rules , co-editors Martin Domke & Frédéric Eisemann, Amsterdam: Kluwer Law International, 1977.

influence

In a decision BGHZ 96, 313 from 1985, which concerned the German conflict rule, the Federal Court of Justice relied on the legal analysis of Cohn. Graveson, Cohn, and Graveson had previously identified these problems in their study, The Uniform Laws on International Sales Act 1967: A Commentary. A European company doing business with a company in the UK did not include an express choice of law provision in its contractual documents. In an article published in 1975 in the legal newspaper, Cohn had spoken out against the judicial reconstruction of the "hypothetical" will of the parties. Instead, the legal rights and obligations of the parties should be governed by the "circumstances of the case, an opposite - real - will of the parties / the circumstances in which the parties found themselves as a matter of economic reality". The informative value of Cohn's analysis is also confirmed in the discussion (of the BGH cases of 1985) by Jan Heilmann in "Warranty for Defects in the UN Sales Law" (Writings on International Law, Volume 67), Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1994, p 60. "This was the case when the seller has the secondary contractual obligation to assist in the export of the goods".

Family and personal life

Marriages and children

Cohn married Marianne Rosenbaum (1914–2009), who emigrated to London from Breslau in 1933. This marriage resulted in Henry Cohn, born in 1936, who became a reader in the Department of History at the University of Warwick . After his marriage to Marianne Rosenbaum was divorced, Cohn married Helen Haag in 1950. She died in 1967. Cohn was very close to Helen's adult children Harold, Fred and Liese (Lee). In 1972 he married Rita Edler (née Jaffé) who survived him.

Support Zionism

Throughout his time in England, Cohn served national and international Jewish institutions. In 1936 he became a founding member of the World Jewish Congress . Cohn soon became one of the two vice honorary secretaries and in 1955 one of the two vice chairmen.

Leadership role in the synagogue

Cohn was a longtime member of the Northwestern Reform Synagogue. Cohn served as the president of the ward.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ note at oxfordscholarship.com
  2. ↑ Vita at koeblergerhard.de
  3. ↑ Bernhard Diestelkamp : Brief outline of the Faculty / Department of Law of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main up to the end of the 20th century , working paper of the Department of Law No. 7/2015 Rn. (ubique without page numbers)
  4. ^ Jurists Uprooted: German-Speaking Emigré Lawyers in Twentieth Century Britain , Oxford University Press, 2004; Jack Beatson and Reinhard Zimmermann, eds. ISBN 978-0-19-826470-5 .
  5. ↑ Goldbach, DE: Antiquariat und Verlag Keip, 1995 (reprinted as Volume 61 of papers on commercial, industrial and agricultural law )
  6. ^ Journal for Foreign and International Private Law, 6th year (1932), pp. 686–692.
  7. ↑ AG Chloros and KH Neumayer (ed.): Liber Amicorum . Heidelberg 1975, ISBN 3-8005-6181-6 .
  8. ^ The National Archives
  9. ↑ R. Graveson, "Ernst Joseph Cohn 1904–1976", Rabel's magazine for foreign and international private law. Volume 41, 1977, p. 233
  10. ^ 'Cohn JZ 1975, 246, 247'
  11. ^ Henry Cohn , at University of Warwick
personal data
SURNAME Cohn, Ernst Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1976
Place of death London