Ulrik Huber

Ulrik Huber (13 March 1636 in Dokkum – 8 November 1694 in Franeker), also known as Ulrich Huber or Ulricus Huber, was a professor of law at the University of Franeker and a political philosopher.

Huber studied in Franeker, Utrecht and Heidelberg. He started in 1657 – at a very young age – as professor of Eloquence and History at the University of Franeker and as of 1665 he became professor of law. From 1679 to 1682 he was a judge at the Court of Appeal of Friesland and thereafter returned his position as professor of law until his death in 1694.

His major work, De jure civitatis libri tres, was published initially in 1672 and continued to be revised until 1694. Huber considered captivity in war, criminal conviction, voluntary renunciation of liberty, and birth from a female slave legal grounds for slavery. Apart from this work, he was internationally well-known for his studies on Roman law. In the Netherlands he is also well known for his work Heedensdaegse Rechtsgeleertheyt soo elders, als in Friesland gebruikelijk (1686, 1768) (The Jurisprudence of My Time). In this work he presents a complete overview of the law system of Friesland at that time. In 1672 he became engaged in the public polemic about the Frisian constitution then raging in and around the States of Friesland with his pamphlet Spiegel Van Doleancie En Reformatie, Na den tegenwoordigen toestant des Vaderlandts (Mirror of Appeal and Reform, concerning the current situation of the Fatherland).

Huber's short treatise on the conflict of laws, Conflictu Legum Diversarum in Diversis Imperiis, was a highly influential work, with a large impact on conflict of laws in English and American jurisprudence.^[1]

He is considered the greatest jurist of the Dutch province Friesland ever known. At the University of Groningen, one of the institutes of the Faculty of Law is named after him.

References

• An introduction to Roman-Dutch law by R. W. Lee

Further reading

• Davies, D. J. Llewelyn, ‘The Influence of Huber’s De conflictu legum on English Private International Law’, British Yearbook of International Law 18 (1937): 49–78.
• Fukuoka, Atsuko. The Sovereign and the Prophets: Spinoza on Grotian and Hobbesian Biblical Argumentation. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
• Fukuoka, Atsuko. ‘A Path between Scylla and Charybdis: Ulrik Huber (1636–1694) and the Theologico-Juridical Paradigm of Constantine the Great’. In De rebus divinis et humanis: Essays in Honour of Jan Hallebeek, eds. Dondorp, Harry, Schermaier, Martin, and Sirks, Boudewijn, 151–166. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2019.
• Goudriaan, Aza. ‘Ulrik Huber (1636–1694) and John Calvin: The Franeker Debate on Human Reason and the Bible (1686–1687)’. Church History and Religious Culture 91, nos. 1–2 (2011): 165–178.
• Hewett, Margaret. Ulric Huber (1636–1694): De ratione juris docendi et discendi diatribe per modum dialogi nonnullis aucta παραλιπομένοις, with a Translation and Commentary. Nijmegen: Gerard Noodt Instituut, 2010.
• Kossmann, E. H. Political Thought in the Dutch Republic: Three Studies. Amsterdam: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 2000.
• Nifterik, Gustaaf van. ‘Ulrik Huber on fundamental laws: A European perspective’. Comparative Legal History 4.1 (2016): 2–18.
• Nifterik, Gustaaf van. ‘Property Beyond Princely Authority: The Intellectual and Legal Roots of Ulrik Huber’s Fundamental Law’. Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 84 (2016): 225–244.
• Raath, A. W. G. and Henning, J. J.. ‘Political Covenantalism, Sovereignty and the Obligatory Nature of Law: Ulrich Huber’s Discourse on State Authority and Democratic Universalism’. Journal for Juridical Science 29.2 (2004): 15–55.

External links

• Ulrik Huber Institute