Eugen Huber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eugen Huber

Eugen Huber (born July 13, 1849 in Oberstammheim , Canton of Zurich , † April 23, 1923 in Bern ) was a Swiss politician ( FDP ) and lawyer . He is best known as the author of the Swiss Civil Code .

Life

Huber, whose father was a doctor, studied law at the University of Zurich . He did his doctorate in 1872 with a thesis on "The development of Swiss inheritance law since the separation of the Swiss Confederation from the Holy Roman Empire". In 1873 he became assistant editor at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , later a council reporter from the Bundeshaus and in 1876, at the age of 27, editor-in-chief. Due to differences with the Free Party, however, he accepted a position as a judge in Trogen in Appenzell as early as 1877 . In 1881 he became professor for Swiss federal , private law and Swiss legal history at the University of Basel . From 1888 he was a professor at the United Friedrichs University in Halle , where he taught historical legislation, private law, commercial law, canon law and legal philosophy.

During this time he summarized the private law of the individual cantons in a four-volume work. In 1892 he was commissioned by the Federal Council to draft a preliminary draft for the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB). For this reason, he switched to the chair for Swiss and German law at the University of Bern . He finished his work on the Civil Code in 1904 with the definitive draft that the Federal Council submitted to the Federal Assembly. The parliamentary deliberations lasted from 1905 to the (unanimous) final vote on December 10, 1907. On January 1, 1912, the civil code came into force.

On September 4, 1894, the Swiss Lawyers Association decided to publish a collection of the legal sources that had been created in Switzerland up to 1798, the Collection of Swiss Legal Sources . In addition to the federal judge Charles Soldan and the Germanist and canonist Ulrich Stutz, who was then teaching in Freiburg im Breisgau , Huber was a member of the preparatory legal sources commission headed by the Basel legal and constitutional historian Andreas Heusler .

Huber was elected to the National Council in the parliamentary elections in 1902 and represented the 6th constituency (Bern-Mittelland) until 1911. His first marriage was to Lina Weissert from Heilbronn (1851–1910). The historian Verena E. Müller is of the opinion that Huber's first wife played a not insignificant role in his publications and actively supported her husband as an employee. After the death of his wife Lina Huber-Weissert, Huber wrote her a letter almost daily for eight years with reports on his work and life. These letters are made accessible by the Legal History Institute of the University of Bern under the direction of Sibylle Hofer open access.

Eugen Huber's grave with bronze sculpture Two seated female figures by Hermann Hubacher (1929), Bremgartenfriedhof in Bern.

Huber rests in the Bremgarten cemetery in Bern .

plant

Eugen Huber-Strasse in Zurich-Altstetten , the birthplace of his parents

"The greatest merit for the legal realization is due to the community members who quietly realize the law with their behavior without further tutoring."

- Eugen Huber

Huber's ZGB was considered the most modern code of law in Europe. It was an ethical and philosophical synthesis of European and cantonal rights. In Article 1, Paragraph 2, the judge is asked to decide himself like a legislator (modo legislatoris) in the event of legal loopholes : «If no provision can be derived from the law, the court should follow customary law and, where there is no one, according to the rule decide that it would draw up as a legislator. " With this reference to Kant's categorical imperative , Huber corresponded to the Swiss understanding of law. It established the creative jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court.

The influence of the Civil Code extended far beyond Switzerland. In 1926 it served Kemal Ataturk , the father of modern Turkey, as a model for his country's new legislation. The Koran- based jurisprudence was replaced by Swiss civil law, which was adopted with only insignificant adjustments. The adoption of the law also included the modern inheritance law and family law of the Civil Code.

Anniversary celebration with exhibition

On December 10, 1907, the federal councils passed the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) by Eugen Huber. To mark the 100th anniversary, a celebratory event took place in the National Council Chamber on December 10, 2007, at which various law professors praised the Civil Code as a pioneering work that has shaped the legislation in various countries.

A traveling exhibition on the history and importance of the Civil Code was set up on December 10th on the Bundesplatz and in the parliament building until the end of the session. It was later made available to university law faculties and other interested institutions.

literature

Web links

Commons : Eugen Huber  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lukas Gschwend : The Collection of Swiss Legal Sources, published by the Legal Sources Foundation of the Swiss Lawyers Association: A monumental work on legal historical basic research. In: Journal of Swiss Law . Volume 126/1, 2007, pp. 435–457, ssrq-sds-fds.ch ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 345 kB). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ssrq-sds-fds.ch
  2. ↑ Lina Weißert. In: Website of the University of Zurich .
  3. ↑ Verena E. Müller: Love and reason. Lina and Eugen Huber. Portrait of a marriage. In: Website of Here and Now.
  4. ^ Sibylle Hofer: Eugen Huber. Letters to the dead woman. Legal History Institute of the University of Bern, accessed on April 13, 2019 .


personal data
SURNAME Huber, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberstammheim , Canton of Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1923
Place of death Bern