Max Kaser

Max Kaser (21 April 1906 - 13 January 1997) was a German professor of Jurisprudence who taught successively at the University of Münster, the University of Hamburg, and the University of Salzburg. The principal focus of his scholarship and teaching was on Roman law. He became a member of a number of learned societies. In addition, between 1958 and 1992, he was awarded honorary doctorates by no fewer than ten different universities on three different continents. An eleventh honorary doctorate, from the Jurisprudence faculty at the University of Regensburg, was awarded only posthumously, however, in 1999.

Max Kaser is respected as the author of pioneering writings on the step by step progression from classical legal concepts to modern European civil law. His text books on Roman civil law and modern civil procedure (for many purposes outside Anglo-American common law precepts) break new ground in presenting the historical evolution of legal concepts and principals, incorporating analyses and commentaries on written sources, and using research techniques that he himself (with others) developed.

In 1924, Max Kaser enrolled at the University of Graz where between 1924 and 1928 he studied Jurisprudence. He was taught by Artur Steinwenter who taught Roman law, and whom Kaser would always single out as a powerfully positive influence, on account of his "extensive knowledge and exceptionally well-balanced judgement". The two would remain firm friends until Steinwenter's death in 1959. He received his doctorate at the University of Graz,

Meanwhile he delivered a programme of lectures at the University of Frankfurt am Main during the winter 1930/31 term before moving on to the nearby University of Giessen where he worked as a research assistant to Otto Eger. It was Eger who supervised Kaser for his habilitation degree which he received in June 1931.

When war broke out in 1939 Kaser, despite being still relatively young, was exempted from military service on account of a serious heart defect. However, as the slaughter of war intensified such matters counted for less, and in November 1943 he was conscripted into the army. He was initially engaged in anti-aircraft warfare but was soon sent back to Münster where he worked as a clerk for the regimental administration ("Regimentsstab"). The army permitted him still to lecture at the university for two days each week. In April 1945, the Americans came. War ended a month later and Max Kaser became a prisoner of war. He was held in various American and French camps till his release, which followed in 1946. He returned to the University of Münster and resumed his teaching. But now they were gone. Kaser could now be less constrained in his lecturing, his writing and on his networking. His reputation continued to grow. In 1960 he became a foreign member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino ("Turin Academy of Sciences and Humanities"). In 1973 he became a corresponding member of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften ("Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities") in Munich. In 1975 he was elected an honorary member of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies in London.

Kaser's text books about Roman Civil Law and Roman legal history more broadly are widely studied and respected. They have been translated into a number of languages including English, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

Max Kaser also received a large number of honorary doctorates.