Dieter Nörr

Dieter Nörr (1931 in Munich, Germany – October 3, 2017) was a German scholar of Ancient Law.[1] He studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich from 1949-1953. After receiving his doctorate with a dissertation on criminal law in the Code of Hammurabi (directed by Professor Mariano San Nicolò),[2] Nörr undertook postdoctoral study at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Rome. He worked for a year as a post-doctoral assistant at the Institute for Criminal Law and Legal Philosophy under Karl Engisch.[3] He received his Habilitation at the University of Munich, under Professor Wolfgang Kunkel, in 1959 with a work on Byzantine Contract Law and was promoted to Privatdozent. He then accepted the Chair of Roman and Civil Law at the University of Hamburg. In 1960, Nörr became Full Professor at the University of Münster. After he declined positions at the Universities of Hamburg, Tübingen, and Bielefeld, he returned to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as Professor, Chair of Roman Law, and Director of the Leopold Wenger Institute for Ancient Legal History and Papyrus Research (and he received emeritus status in 1999).[4] His brother, Knut Wolfgang Nörr, was also a Professor of Legal History, especially Canon Law, at the University of Tübingen.[5]

As director of the Leopold Wenger Institute,[6] for decades he led the famous Wednesday evening seminar where undergraduates would give presentations on passages from ancient law and from the Roman jurists. Many of his doctoral students went on to become professors of ancient law at a number of universities (in Germany and elsewhere, including Hans-Dieter Spengler at the University of Erlangen, Tiziana Chiusi at the University of the Saarland, Wolfgang Kaiser at the University of Freiburg, and Johannes Platschek at the University of Munich). Professor Nörr also generously hosted many foreign guest researchers in the Leopold Wenger Institute.[7]

Dieter Nörr’s research focus was Roman law and legal philosophy. Professor Nörr was also co-editor of the Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte (Romanistische Abteilung), the leading scholarly journal for Roman law from 1972-2001.[8] He received three honorary doctorates and was honored as a member of many scholarly academies, including the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts (ordinary member since 1967, corresponding member since 1970), the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (since 1972), the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (since 1979), the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Lincean Academy (in Rome).[9]