All Scholars
LEVY, Ernst
- Date of Birth: December 23, 1881
- Born City: Berlin
- Born State/Country: Germany
- Parents: Robert & Elisabeth Landsberger L.
- Date of Death: September 14, 1968
- Death City: Davis
- Death State/Country: CA
- Married: Zerline "Bety" Wolff, 1909
- Education:
Studied law, Freiburg & Berlin (D.L., 1906); (Phil.habil., 1909); DLL. (hon.), Frankfurt, 1949; Ph.D. (hon.). Heidelberg, 1949.
- Dissertation:
"Sponsio, fideipromissio and fideiussio" (Ph.D., Berlin, 1906); "Privatstrafe und Schadensersatz im historischen röm. Recht" (Phil. habil., 1915).
- Professional Experience:
District Judge, Amtsgericht, Oranienburg, 1909-15; instructor in law, Berlin, 1914-15; assoc. prof. Roman and German Law, Frankfurt 1919; professor 1919-22; Freiburg im Breslau, 1922-28; lectr. Law & history, Heidelberg, 1928-35; Walker Eames Professor of European history and Roman Law, U. of Washington, 1936-52; mngng ed., Romanistic Division, Savigny Journal, 1926-35; Guggenheim fell., 1937.
- Publications:
“Zur Lehre von der Muciana cautio,” ZRG 24 (1903) 122; Sponsio, fidepromissio, fideiussio, (Berlin: Vahlen, 1907); Privatstrafe und Schadensersatz, (Berlin: Vahlen, 1915); Zur Lehre von den actions arbitrariae, 1915; “Die Haftung mehrerer Tutoren,” ZDR 37 (1916) 14ff; Die Konkurrenz de Aktionen und Personen im klassischen römischen Recht, (Aalen: Scientia, 1918, 1922); “Die Enteignung des Klägers im Formularprozess”, ZRG 42 (1921) 476ff; Der Hargang der römischen Ehescheidung (Weimar: Böhlaus, 1925); Verschollenheit und Ehe in Antiken Rechten (Berlin: Richter, 1927); “Die Gefahrtragung beim Kauf,” with Emil Seckel, ZRG 47 (1927) 117ff; “Neue Juristenfragmente aus Oxyrynchos” ZRG 48 (1928) 532ff; “Die nachklassische Ersitzung,” BIDR 51-52 (1924) 352-71; Der Hergang der römischen Ehescheidung (Weimar: Böhlau, 1925); “Sententia des iudex datus in einem Erbrechtsprozess unter Claudius,” with P.M. Meyer, ZRG 46 (1926) 276-85; “Verschollenheit und Ehe in antiken Rechten,” in Gedächtnisschrift für Emil Seckel (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1927) 145-93; “Neue Juristenfragmente aus Oxyrhynchos,” ZRG 50 (1928) 532-55; “Neue Lesung des Halberstädter Palimpsestes,” ZRG 50 (1928) 582-4; Index interpolationum quae in Iustiniani Digestis inesse dicuntur, I ad libros I-XX pertinens, Supplementum I ad libros I-XII pertinens, with E. Rabel & L. Mitteis (Weimar: Böhlaus, 1929-35); “Neue Lesung von Gaius IV, 62,” ZRG 51 (1929) 472;
“Westen und Osten in der nachklassigen Entwicklung des römischen Rechts,” ZRG 51 (1929) 230-59; “Paulus und der Sentenzenverfasser,” ZRG 52 (1930) 272-94; “Zum Gaius von Oxyrhynchos,” in Studi in onore di Pietro Bonfante, ed. Emilio Albertario, Pietro Ciapessoni, & Pietro De Francisci (Milan: Fratelli Treves, 1930) 275-87; Ergänzungsindex zu Ius und Leges (Weimar: Böhlau, 1930); Die römische Kapitalstrafe (Heidelberg: Winter, 1930-1); “Zwei Inschriften auf den Juristen Maecianus,” ZRG 54 (1932) 352-5; “Von den römischen Anklägervergehen,” ZRG 55 (1933) 151-233; “Neue Bruchstücke aus den Institutionen des Gaius,” ZRG 56 (1934) 258-311; Zum Wesen des weströmischen Vulgarrechts (1935); “Gesetz und Richter im kaiserlichen Strafrecht: I: Die Strafzumessung,” BIDR 45 (1938) 57-166; “Reflections on the First “Reception” of Roman Law in Germanic States,” AHR 48 (1942) 20-9; “Vulgarization of Roman Law in the Early Middle Ages,” M&H 1 (1943) 14-40; “Captivus redemptus,” CP (1943) 159-76; “Principal and Surety in Classical Roman Law,” Seminar 2 (1944) 6-22; Pauli Sententiae. A Palingenesia of the Opening Titles as a Specimen of Research in West Roman Vulgar Law (Ithaca, NY: Cornell U. Press, 1945); “Possessory Remedies in Roman Vulgar Law,” in Scritti in onore di C. Ferrini pubblicati in occasione della sua beatificazione (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1947-9) 109-43; “Vom römischen Precarium zur germanischen Landleihe,” ZRG 66 (1948) 1-30; “Natural Law in Roman Thought, SDHI 15 (1949) 1-23; “Zur nachklassischen in integrum restitutio,” ZRG 68 (1951) 360-434; West Roman Vulgar Law. The Law of Property (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1951); “Captivus redemptus,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 70-97; “Principal and Surety in Classical Roman Law. Did Action Brought against the One Consume the Obligation of the Other?,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 207-21; “Beweislast im klassischen Recht,” Jura 3 (1952) 155-79; “Die querela non numeratae pecuniae,” ZRG 70 (1953) 214-46; “Eine actio in rem im frühen Westgotenrecht?,” in Studi in onore di V. Arangio-Ruiz nel XLV anno del suo insegnamento (Naples: Jovene, 1953) 1-13; Pauli Sententiarum Fragmentum Leidense (Cod. Leid. B. P. L. 2589), with Gian Gualberto Archi, M. David, Robert Marichal, & Hein L.W. Nelson (Leiden: Brill, 1956); Das weströmische Vulgarrecht. Das Obligationenrecht (Weimar: Böhlau, 1956); “Römisches Vulgarrecht und Kaiserrecht,” BIDR 62 (1959) 1-6; “West-östliches Vulgarrecht und Justinian,” ZRG 76 (1959) 1-36; “Oströmisches Vulgarrecht nach dem Zerfall des Westreiches,” ZRG 77 (1960) 1-15; “Libertas und civitas,” ZRG 78 (1961) 142-72; Nachträge zur Konkurrenz der Aktionen und Personen (Weimar: Böhlau, 1962).
- Notes:
At Berlin, Levy studied law under the jurist Emil Seckel (1864-1924), the Professor of Law Martin Wolff (1872-1953), and Konrad Hellwig (1856-1913). He wrote a significant dissertation on Roman surety law under Seckel. He managed to complete his habilitation while serving as a district judge but was called into service in World War I. After the war he was named professor at Frankfurt on the basis of his work on actions and persons in historical Roman law, followed by stints at Freiburg im Breslau, and Heidelberg. His work in this period was based on the methods of the time, investigating Roman private law as of divorce, capital punishment, and maternal law as derived from the writings of Justinian. When he turned to study marital law he looked not only to legal sources but also to demographic sources. His breakthrough 1928 speech to the International Congress of Historians began a fresh and original look at the understudied area of Roman vulgar law and its extension into the early Middle Ages. His data is gathered in his supplementary volume to the Heidelberg Index of the Codex Theodosianus.
Forced from his chair by the Nazis in 1935, he emigrated the next year to America where he found a position at the University of Washington. P.W. Duff, the Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge university wrote, “In America, the greatest name in Roman Law studies is now that of Ernst Levy.” He continued his work on vulgar law and in 1945 produced his study of the Sententiae of the great Roman jurist Julius Paulus, tracing the common elements in the commentaries on the remains of the earlier jurists included in Justinian’s Digests. His description of the law of obligations and property are essential to understanding the European (and particularly early German) inheritance from Roman law.
After his retirement he moved to Basel, but returned to America and settled in northern California for his last years.
- Sources:
P.W. Duff, Tulane Law Review 4 (1947) 22; Robert L. Taylor, "Dr. Ernst Levy," Washington Law Review, 27 (1952) 173–5; Dietrich V. Simon, NDB 14: 403–4;. Deutsche Juristen im amerikanischen Exil (1933–1950), ed. Ernst C. Stiefel, Frank Mecklenburg (Tübingen: Mohr, 1991); Ernst Levy und Wolfgang Kunkel; Briefwechsel, 1922-1968 (Heidelberg: Winter, 2005).
Photo credit: Robert Herbst Heidelberg
- Author: Ward Briggs
