Ernst Levy (lawyer)

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Ernst Levy (born December 23, 1881 in Berlin , †  September 14, 1968 in Davis , California ) was a German lawyer and legal historian . Because of his Jewish origins he was persecuted during the Nazi era and had to leave Germany. As a scholar, Ernst Levy worked primarily in the field of Roman law and ancient legal history.

resume

Levy studied in Freiburg and Berlin . In Berlin he received his doctorate in 1906 under Emil Seckel (1864–1924). From 1909 to 1912 he was a district judge in Oranienburg . From 1912 he was on leave to work on his habilitation thesis. The habilitation , also at Seckel, followed in 1914. After participating in the First World War from 1915 to 1918 he became a full professor in 1919 in Frankfurt and moved in 1923 to Freiburg. From 1928 he was a professor in Heidelberg . He was removed from this office in 1935 because of his “non-Aryan” origin. In 1936 Levy had to emigrate to the USA. There he was from 1937 to 1952 professor at the University of Washington in Seattle . Ernst Levy lived in Basel from 1956 to 1966 , but then returned to the USA.

During the Nazi era, Levy stayed in correspondence with his student Wolfgang Kunkel , who had stayed in Germany.

From 1927 to 1934 Levy was co-editor of the Romance department of the famous Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte magazine . After the Second World War he was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Heidelberg, Frankfurt am Main and Athens. In 1956 he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit . Furthermore, Levy, who had already belonged to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences before the Nazi era , was accepted into the Accademia dei Lincei after the war . In 1960 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . Since 1962 he was also a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Ernst Levy died on September 14, 1968 in Davis, California.

Scientific importance

Ernst Levy has studied many aspects of Roman law. His research on Western Roman Vulgar law is of particular importance . This is to be understood as the law that applied in the western part of the Roman Empire in late antiquity . During this time, the complex rules of classical Roman law were no longer up to date and were no longer understood. Therefore, in practice, a less complex law developed, which was shaped by the sense of justice of the provincial population and therefore adopted legal ideas that were alien to Roman law. Levy described this vulgar law in a two-volume work, the first volume of which appeared in English, but the second in German.

Works

  • The competition of actions and persons in classical Roman law . 2 volumes, Berlin 1918–1922. Reprint Aalen 1964
  • West Roman Vulgar Law. The Law of Property . 1951, reprint 2003, ISBN 1575887789
  • Western Roman vulgar law - the law of obligations . 1956

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 150.
  2. ^ Ernst Levy obituary by Wolfgang Kunkel at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (PDF file).


personal data
SURNAME Levy, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and legal historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1968
Place of death Davis