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Ernst Levy (jurist)

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Ernst Levy
Born(1881-12-23)23 December 1881
Berlin, Prussia
Died14 September 1968(1968-09-14) (aged 86)
Davis, California
NationalityGerman American
Alma materHumboldt University of Berlin
Spouse
Zerline Wolff
​
(m. 1909)​
ChildrenWolfgang (1910 - 2001), Brigitte (1912–1981)
Scientific career
FieldsHistory of law
Doctoral advisorEmil Seckel

Ernst Levy (23 December 1881 – 14 September 1968) was a German American legal scholar and historian of law.[1] He earned a doctorate in law at the University of Berlin in 1906 and began his teaching career at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1914.[2] After serving in the army, Levy was named Professor of Roman Law at the Goethe University Frankfurt, where he taught from 1919-1922, followed Otto Lenel as Professor of Roman Law at the University of Freiburg from 1922-1928, and then taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1928-1935.[3] Being Jewish, he was forced to retire in 1935, and decided to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the University of Washington in the United States, where he was a Professor of Law and History from 1937 to 1952.[4]

Born in Berlin, Levy studied law at both the University of Freiburg and the Humboldt University of Berlin, earning his doctorate under Emil Seckel in 1906.[5] He briefly worked at the Amtsgericht in Oranienburg, and served in World War I in the artillery before earning a professorship at Frankfurt. Due to the Nuremberg Laws he had to retire in 1935, and then moved to the United States.[6] During his career Levy was managing editor of the Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte for nine years and was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship.[7] Levy also served as "magister" of the Riccobono Seminar at the Catholic University of America in 1944.[8] He was a prolific scholar[9] and was the recipient of honorary degrees from both the University of Frankfurt and the University of Heidelberg in 1949.[10]

References

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  1. ^ See Dietrich V. Simon, "Levy, Ernst," Neue Deutsche Biographie, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/ppn11872794X.html & Robert L. Taylor, "Dr. Ernst Levy," Washington Law Review, vol. 27, no. 3, 173 (1952), https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2899&context=wlr.
  2. ^ Id.
  3. ^ Id.
  4. ^ See Simon, note 1 above & Stiefel, Ernst C.; Mecklenburg, Frank (1991). Deutsche Juristen im amerikanischen Exil (1933–1950) (in German). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 51–52. ISBN 3161456882.
  5. ^ Epstein, Catherine (1993). A Past Renewed: A Catalog of German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States After 1933. Cambridge University Press. pp. 190–191. ISBN 0521440637. See also Simon & Taylor, note 1 above.
  6. ^ See Taylor, note 1 above.
  7. ^ Taylor, note 1 above.
  8. ^ Salvo Randazzo, "Roman Legal Tradition and American Law: The Riccobono Seminar of Roman Law in Washington," Roman Legal Tradition, vol. 1, pp. 123, 141 (2002).
  9. ^ See Simon & Taylor, note 1 above regarding Levy's writings
  10. ^ Taylor, note 1 above.

Further reading

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