David Daube (1909–1999)

This chapter assesses the contribution of émigré legal scholar David Daube to the study of Roman law in Britain. First, a short account of his career is given, and some aspects of the study of Roman law in Britain before Daube arrived on the scene, are discussed. Daube was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany in 1909 and died in California in 1999 at the age of 90. He attended the Berthold-Gymnasium in Freiburg, and then in 1927 went on to study law at the Albert-Ludwigs University there. Along with Franz Wieacker, he was a member of the seminar which Fritz Pringsheim ran and in which the...

This chapter assesses the contribution of émigré legal scholar David Daube to the study of Roman law in Britain. First, a short account of his career is given, and some aspects of the study of Roman law in Britain before Daube arrived on the scene, are discussed. Daube was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany in 1909 and died in California in 1999 at the age of 90. He attended the Berthold-Gymnasium in Freiburg, and then in 1927 went on to study law at the Albert-Ludwigs University there. Along with Franz Wieacker, he was a member of the seminar which Fritz Pringsheim ran and in which the most famous of all scholars of Roman law, Otto Lenel, took part. Daube appeared to lack interest in the place of Roman law in the curriculum, in stark contrast with the attitude of Lenel, who was in the forefront of the campaign to defend the position of Roman law in the German universities against successive attacks. Daube and other refugees helped change the nature of legal education in Britain.