born Feb. 21, 1779, Frankfurt am Main
died Oct. 25, 1861, Berlin, Prussia
German jurist and legal historian.
He was nobly born, and his privileged position enabled him to devote his life to scholarship. Teaching at the University of Berlin (1810–42), he helped found the influential "historical school" of jurisprudence. His six-volume History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages (1815–31) laid the foundation of the modern study of medieval law. He founded a system for establishing a modern German civil law with his eight-volume System of Modern Roman Law (1840–49), which also contained his system of international private law. A product of Romanticism, he regarded law as a reflection of a people's customs and spirit that could not be imposed artificially by means of rational, formal legislation.