ESMEIN, JEAN-PAUL-HIPPOLYTE-EMANUEL, known as ADHÉMAR. — Historian of law and canonist, born at Touvérac (Charente) on 1 February 1848, died in Paris on 20 July 1913. He was first a professor in the Faculty of Law at Douai (1875–79), and then in that of Paris (1879–1913), where in 1889 he became the first full professor to occupy the newly established chair of the history of law and constitutional law.
From 1886 he taught the history of canon law at the École des Hautes Études, of which he was also deputy director. From 1901 he was professor of political science and a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He was a member of the Institut de France (1904), the Higher Council of Public Education, and the Tribunal des conflits. He left excellent treatises, several important monographs, and numerous studies published in various journals (Nouvelle revue historique de droit français et étranger, of which he was also director; Revue trimestrielle de droit civil, of which he was a co-founder; etc.). His scholarly production in the historical field of law, particularly canon law, is noteworthy, as is the influence exerted by his chair in bringing about the revival and renewal of this discipline in the universities.
His principal works: Histoire de la procédure criminelle en France et spécialement de la procédure inquisitoriale (Paris 1882); Etudes sur les contrats dans le très ancien droit français (there 1883); Mélanges d'histoire de droit et de critique (there 1886); Le mariage en droit canonique (2 vols., there 1891; 2nd ed., there 1929–33); Les ordalies dans l'Église au IXe siècle, Hucmar de Reims et ses contemporains (there 1899).