Joan Melchior Kemper

Joan Melchior Kemper

Kemper statue in The Hague

Joan Melchior Kemper (also: Jan, Johan, Johann ; born April 26, 1776 in Amsterdam , † July 20, 1824 in Leiden ) was a Dutch politician and legal scholar.

Life

The son of Joan Hendrik Kemper and his wife Elizabeth Becker were orphaned at a young age and raised by their maternal grandmother. He attended the Latin school in his hometown and in 1791 moved to the Athenaeum Illustre Amsterdam , where he became a student of Hendrik Constantijn Cras , Jean Henri van Swinden and Daniel Wyttenbach . Particularly encouraged by Cras, he developed a conviction for patriotism and freedom at an early age and demonstrated his skills in the science of rights with a few disputations. After 1796 at the University of Leiden to the doctor of the rights doctorate , had he settled as a lawyer in his native city, and he became 1798 professor of civil and natural law at the University of Harderwijk called what post he on June 16, 1799 speech de Jure naturae immutabile et aeterno took over.

In 1800 he was nominated for a professorship at the University of Utrecht , but remained in Harderwijk, where in 1801 he was appointed professor of constitutional and international law and in the same year he took over the rectorate of the Alma Mater . During the difficult years of the French occupation of the Netherlands , he tried in word and deed to turn against Napoleon's plans in order to avert the annexation of the Netherlands to France. So he brought out letters under a pseudonym against the French occupation. A French translation of these caused displeasure in Paris, so the search for the author was made. However, he was able to evade persecution. He went back to Amsterdam, where he became professor of civil law at the Gymnasium Athenaeum Illustre and took up this position on November 3, 1806 with the speech Oratio de legibus populorum optimis increscentis vel decrescentis humanitatis indiciis (Amsterdam 1807).

Three years later, on May 6, 1809, he became professor of nature, constitutional and international law at the University of Leiden, which office he took over with the Oratio de moralium disciplinarum dignitate ad caeteras disciplinas comparata . Here he devoted himself primarily to legal topics. When the Netherlands was able to free itself from the French in 1813, he took an active part in the political reconstruction and rebuilding, which was also expressed in that year in his election as rector of the Leiden Alma Mater . He took an active part in the return of the House of Orange to the Netherlands and became a supportive factor in the investiture of William I on the Dutch royal throne. Many of the proclamations issued at that time are from his pen. He participated in the drafting of the Dutch Basic Law, which, however, was not approved, and in 1817 became a member of the Dutch Second Chamber of the States General . He also took part in the unification attempts with Belgium and was raised to the nobility in 1815.

He was married to Christina de Vries since March 18, 1798, with whom he had five children. The son Jeronimo de Bosch Kemper also gained importance as a professor of law in Amsterdam.

Works

• Hieronymo Bosschio ejusque Bibliotheca, geplaatst voor the Catalogus librorum, qui studiis inservierunt viri celeberrimi Hieronymi de Bosch, Academiae Lugdunensis Curatoris etc. Amsterdam 1812
• Brieven over de tegenwoordig in omloop zijnde smoked omtrent eene nadere vereeniging van de Bataafsehe Republiek met Frankrijk Amsterdam 1806
• Crimineel wetboek voor het Koningrijk Holland, vergeleken met het tot nu toe in eight genomes Romeinsch en Nederlandsch regt, 1st deel. Amsterdam 1809
• Jaarboeken van het Fransche Regt en de Fransche Regtsgeleerdheid. Amsterdam 1812, 1813 4 pieces
• Verzameling van Wetten en Decreten, betrekking lifting tot de inlijving en organisatie of the Hollandsche departments. The Hague 1813
• Speeches over den invloed van een onafhankelijk volksbestaan ​​op de letteren en schoone kunsten, en over den invloed van den geest des tijds op de beoefening der letteren en wetenschappen. Amsterdam 1814
• Drietal Brieven over de wet van 14 Mei 1814, betrekkelijk het herstel van Hollands Finantien. Amsterdam 1814
• Over de lotgevallen van onzen leeftijd een voorbeeld opleverende hetwelk de volken en inzonderheid de Nederlanders, never moeten Verwaarloozen. Then het latijn, by Mr. CJ van Assen. The Hague 1816
• Advijs over de Haringvisscherij bij de overweging the wet van 18 Maart 1818 over dit onderwerp. Amsterdam 1818
• Proeve over den invloed der Staatkundige gebeurtenissen en der Godsdienstige en Wijsgeerige gebippen, sedert ruim vijf en twintig jaren, op de ware verlichting in het godsdienstige en zedelijke van de volken van Europa. Met goud bekroond door Teyler's godgeleerd genootschap en in het 28th deel van deszelfs works. Haarlem 1818, 1819
• Divorce of the deliberatiën over het ontwerp van het Burgerlijk Wetboek voor het Koningrijk der Nederlanden. 1st and 2nd vol. 1, 2 and 3 pieces The Hague, 1820, 1821
• Lijkrede op Mr. HC Cras, vóór diens Nagelatene Verhandelingen en Redevoeringen. Amsterdam 1822
• Memoria HC Crassii rite celebrata. Opgenomen in de Wérken van het Instituut, en overprinted. Amsterdam 1825
• Negotiating, redeeming and state documents, de-listed by J. de Bosch Kemper. Amsterdam 1835 3rd vol.

literature

• Michael Stolleis : Jurists - a biographical lexicon from antiquity to the 20th century. Verlag CH Beck oHG, Munich 2001, ISBN 3406459579 , p. 356
• Friedrich Julius Otto: The complete literature of the Netherlands, or life and work of the Dutch writers since the thirteenth century up to our time. Publishing house of the bibliographical institute, Hildburghausen-Amsterdam-Philadelphia, 1838, Sp. 256 ( online )
• van Kuyk: KEMPER (Joan Melchior) In: Nieuw Nederlands Biografisch Woordenboek. (NNBW), Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (ING), AW Sijthoff, Leiden, 1912, Vol. 2, Sp. 658-661, (Dutch)
• Abraham Jacob van der Aa : Biographical woordenboek der Nederlanden, bevattende levensbeschrijvingen van zoodanige people, who zich op eenigerlei wijze in ons vaderland vermaard made. Verlag JJ Van Brederode, Haarlem, 1862, Vol. 10, pp. 111-117, ( online , Dutch)
• Felix Meritis (Ed.): De nagedachtenis van Johan Melchior Kemper - plegig gevierd on December 17, 1824. Johannes van der Hey en Zoon, Amsterdam 1825, ( Online , Dutch)

Web link

• Joan Melchior Kemper at the Digital Library of the Netherlands