Esmein, Jean-Paul-Hippolyte-Emmanuel, known as Adhémar

ESMEIN, Jean-Paul-Hippolyte-Emmanuel, known as Adhémar. - Legal historian, canonist, b. at Touvérac (Charente) on 1 February 1848, d. at 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 ordinary holder of the new chair of history of law and constitutional law.

From 1886 he taught history of canon law at the École des Hautes Études, of which he was also assistant director. From 1901 he appears as professor of political sciences and member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He was a member of the Institut de France (1904), of the Conseil supérieur de la publique instruction and of the Tribunal des conflits. He left excellent treatises, several important monographs, in 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 co-founder, etc.). Noteworthy is his scientific output in the historical field of law, particularly of canon law, and the influence exercised by the chair for the rebirth 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 (ibid. 1883); Mélanges d'histoire de droit et de critique (ibid. 1886); Le mariage en droit canonique (2 vols., ibid. 1891; 2nd ed. ibid. 1929-33); Les ordalies dans l'Église au IXe siècle, Hucmar de Reims et ses contemporains (ibid. 1899).

Zaccaria da San Mauro