Otto Riese

Otto Riese (born October 27, 1894 in Frankfurt am Main , † June 4, 1977 in Pully near Lausanne ) was a German lawyer , judge and university professor . He was President of the Senate of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe and the first judge of the Federal Republic of Germany at the European Court of Justice . He is considered a pioneer of private international law and aviation law .

family

Otto Riese was born as the son of Johann August Otto Riese , who became known as the master builder and engineer of railway lines in Africa and Asia and who, among other things, was the construction manager for the Baghdad Railway , and Karoline Elise née. Euler.

Life and career

Studies and early years

Riese attended the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main and studied law for three semesters at the University of Lausanne from 1913 until the First World War . During his studies in Lausanne he became a member of the Société d'Étudiants Germania Lausanne . Riese volunteered in the fighting in the west and was most recently lieutenant in the reserve and department adjutant in the Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 21.

After the war he continued his studies at the University of Leipzig and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt . He then wrote his dissertation under the title "in accordance with the socialization laws to forming syndicates The legal construction" and in 1921 at the University of Frankfurt for doctor of law doctorate . In 1923 he completed his studies with the second state examination and was then assessor at the regional court in Frankfurt am Main .

From 1924 to 1925 he was a trainee at the MMWarburg & CO bank in Hamburg. He then moved to the Reich Ministry of Justice , for which he worked from 1925 to 1935, first as an assistant for international law and international traffic law and later as head of the department for international law and international law.

Since 1926 he was also a member of the International Committee of Air Law Experts and that year participated as secretary of the German delegation at the Brussels Conference on the Law of the Sea.

1928 studied English law in London for six months and at the end of 1928 was promoted to senior government councilor in the Reich Ministry of Justice. In the area of private international law , Riese specialized in aviation law, and from 1924 to 1938 he participated as a first-rate delegate and expert in state diplomatic conferences aimed at standardizing private aviation law in Paris, Warsaw, Rome and Brussels.

From 1929 to 1930 Riese undertook extensive study trips to India , Siam , the Dutch East Indies , China and Japan at his own expense and was rapporteur for the International Diplomatic Conference on Private Air Law in Rome and was a member of the Comité International Technique d'Experts Juridiques Aériens in Paris and the Aviation Law Committee of the German Society for International Law.

In 1934 he was appointed Ministerialrat in the Reich Ministry of Justice.

Career as a professor

As early as 1928, in talks with the Université de Lausanne and the Department of Education of the Canton of Vaud , Riese campaigned for the German law classes, which had been stalled for 10 years due to the low student numbers during the First World War, to be re-established at the otherwise French-speaking Université de Lausanne could. The negotiations led to the result that the dean of the law faculty and the education directorate announced the appointment of a German private lecturer as an associate lecturer in 1931. After giant had obtained leave for the duration of a summer by the Ministry of Justice, he took the addressed to him offer, as a lecturer for German Civil and Civil Procedure Law lectures at the University of Lausanne to keep.

In 1935 he was appointed associate professor for German law in Lausanne and was initially engaged for the usual period of 2 years. After he had received his permanent professorship at the Chair of German Law at the University of Lausanne , he officially left the Association of the Reich Ministry of Justice at his request. Even after the outbreak of World War II, Riese was able to continue to give lectures in Lausanne, although in addition to a reduced program for German students, since 1937 he has also lectured on droit aérien international (international aviation law) and from 1941 on la réforme actuel du droit civil allemand in French held for Swiss students.

In 1947 he turned down an offer at the University of Mainz . He also did not accept the offer of a civil servant position in the administration of the British-occupied zone and thus ensured that German law students could continue to teach at the Université de Lausanne despite the persistent adverse circumstances.

In 1949 he was finally appointed full professor for German law, law of German securities , aviation and traffic law and comparative law . From 1950 he also held the office of dean of the law faculty of the University of Lausanne and from 1951 was still active as an honorary professor at the University of Lausanne.

Since 1956, Professor Riese has continued to take part in the conferences of the " International Civil Aviation Organization " (ICAO), a special organization of the United Nations and its legal committee, as the German delegate and head of the delegation . After the legal journal "Archiv für Luftrecht" was discontinued in 1943, he reported on this in various German international law periodicals and since 1952 regularly in the newly appearing legal journal "Zeitschrift für Luftrecht und Weltraumrechtsfragen" (today's Zeitschrift für Luft- und Weltraumrecht (ZLW) ). In addition, he examined the legal development of aviation law in several aviation law monographs.

Judge at the BGH and the ECSC Court of Justice

After the war he was appointed President of the 3rd Civil Senate to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe by the then Justice Minister Thomas Dehler during the reconstruction of a supreme court for the Federal Republic in 1951 . Public law disputes in particular were also assigned to the 3rd Civil Senate.

Shortly afterwards he was entrusted by the federal government with the task of taking part in the implementation of the Schuman Plan as a judge on the founding of the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community . He then worked from December 4, 1952 to October 6, 1958 for almost 6 years as a judge at the ECSC Court of Justice in Luxembourg , the forerunner of the European Court of Justice. Otto Riese belonged together with Charles Léon Hammes (1898–1967) from Luxembourg , Adrianus van Kleffens (1899–1973) from the Netherlands , Petrus Serrarens (1888–1963) also from the Netherlands, Massimo Pilotti (1879–1962) from Italy, Jacques Rueff (1896–1978) from France and Louis Delvaux (1895–1976) from Belgium joined the first chamber established at the ECSC Court. When he was sworn in on December 10, 1952, Riese was the first German judge at a supreme court at European level.

His work at the ECSC Court followed from 7 October 1958 to 6 February 1963 on four more years as judge and president of the Chamber to that resulting from newly established European Court of Justice of the three European Communities , the 1992 top judicial organ of the European Union (EU ) based in Luxembourg . He was also the first German judge at this court.

In 1961, Riese was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon for his services .

In 1963, Riese criticized the language regime to use the French language as the uniform and only working language of the European Court of Justice. This language regime gives the judges whose mother tongue French are considerable advantages over the other judges and enables direct, secret deliberations of the judges' college without translations. On the other hand, she also had to listen to the not always brilliant French of her colleagues and imposed the “ toilette de style ” of the drafts on them . Riese received criticism with his remarks, but this was not openly expressed.

Late years in Lausanne

In 1963 Otto Riese returned to Lausanne at the age of 68 , where he continued to give lectures in German and French on comparative law and German civil law until 1966 as an honorary professor . In 1969 he founded the Institute for Comparative Law at the University of Lausanne, which he headed as director until 1972.

Riese published numerous scientific papers on aviation law issues.

He was a passionate collector of Japanese woodblock prints. His collection, consisting of more than 179 sheets, was the subject of several exhibitions until the end of 2009.

Riese was unmarried and died on June 4, 1977 at the age of 82 in Pully near Lausanne.

Awards and honors

• Iron Cross 1st Class (1914)
• Iron Cross 2nd Class (1914)
• Wound Badge (1918)
• Large Federal Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon (1961)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Eugen Langen: Obituary for Otto Riese. Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 1977, p. 1522.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Dedication by Walter Strauss in: Festschrift for Otto Riese on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. Karlsruhe 1964
3. ^ ^{A b c} Karl Heinz Neumayer : 100 years of German law lessons at the University of Lausanne. In: Gratiae Fructus, commemorative publication in honor of the University of Lausanne. P. 26 f. Donau-Druck, Regensburg 1997, ISBN 3-927529-46-X .
4. ^ ^{A b} Karl Heinz Neumayer : 100 years of German law lessons at the University of Lausanne. In: Gratiae Fructus, commemorative publication in honor of the University of Lausanne. P. 28. Donau-Druck, Regensburg 1997, ISBN 3-927529-46-X .
5. ^ See: List of judges at the European Court of Justice
6. ↑ On this in detail: Otto Riese: The language problem in the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in: From German to European law - Festschrift for Festschrift for Heinz Dölle. 1963, pp. 507-524.
7. ↑ See ibid.
8. ^ Hans Joachim Hermann: Handbook of international civil procedure law , Volume 3, Edition 1, edited by the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Private Law. P. 60
9. ↑ ^{a b} Udo Wörffel:  Riese, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 606 f. ( Digitized version ).

Publications

• About the methods of international standardization of private law. In: Journal of Swiss Law Volume 86, Half Volume 1, 1967, pp. 1–31
• The language problem in the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in: From German to European law - Festschrift for Festschrift for Heinz Dölle. 1963, pp. 507-524.
• Unified jurisdiction for unified law? In: Rabel's Journal for Foreign and International Private Law Volume 26, 1961, pp. 604–628
• The multilateral agreement on commercial rights in unscheduled air transport in Europe. Kirschbaum Verlag, Bielefeld 1959
• International private law problems in the field of aviation law. In: Zeitschrift für Luft- und Weltraumrecht 1958, p. 271
• Current issues of air and space law. Droste, Düsseldorf 1958
• Practical experience of the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community. In: Deutsche Richterzeitung 1958, pp. 270–274.
• Précis de droit aérien international et suisse. Pichon & Durand-Auzias, Paris 1951
• Aviation law: the international law of civil aviation with special consideration of Swiss law. Koehler Verlag, Stuttgart 1949
• The constitutional enforcement of state treaties in England. Tauchnitz Verlag, Leipzig 1929
• The legal construction of the syndicates to be formed according to the socialization laws. Dissertation at the University of Frankfurt. Osterrieth Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1921

literature

• Udo Wörffel:  Riese, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 606 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Fritz Sturm: Riese, Otto. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Fritz Sturm : Hommage au professeur Otto Riese. In: Gratiae Fructus, Festschrift in honor of the University of Lausanne - 100 years of teaching German law at the University of Lausanne - 100 years of the Germania Lausanne Corporation. Donau-Druck, Regensburg 1997, ISBN 3-927529-46-X , pp. 33-37.
• Eugen Langen: Obituary for Otto Riese. In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1977, p. 1522
• Festschrift for Otto Riese on the occasion of his seventieth birthday (with contributions by Aubin, Bernhard, Ernst v. Caemmerer, Philippe Meylan, Karl Heinz Neumayer , Gerd Rinck, Walter Strauss ). CF Müller publishing house, Karlsruhe 1964
• Stephan von der Schulenburg (ed.). Wolfgang Höhn (catalog of works): Heroes of the stage and beauties of the night. Masterpieces of Japanese woodcut from the Otto Riese and Johann Georg Geyger collections , Museum of Applied Arts Frankfurt, February 19 - May 10, 2009. Catalog for the exhibition with numerous illustrations. Wienand, Cologne 2009
• Rose Hempel: Masterpieces of Japanese Color Woodcut - the Otto Riese Collection. Catalog book on the occasion of the exhibition "Masterpieces of the Japanese Color Woodcut, the Otto Riese Collection" in the Museum for East Asian Art Cologne from September 24 to December 7, 1997. Prestel Verlag, Munich, New York 1997

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Riese in the catalog of the German National Library
• Long-term and productive collaboration: The Institute and Professor Otto Riese , Institute for Air and Space Law, Faculty of Law at the University of Cologne
• Short biography (with photo) on the pages of Former Members of the Court of Justice of the European Communities
• Biography of Otto Rieses on the pages of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gerhard Koebler
• The first seven judges of the Court of Justice of the ECSC were sworn in on December 10, 1952 , audio document, Otto Rieses sworn in from 00:00:45 min.
• Judge at the first working session of the Court of Justice of the ECSC in Luxembourg on December 10, 1952