SOHM, RUDOLF

As extraordinary professor at the University of Göttingen in 1870, he was called to Freiburg im Br. for the chair of canon law. In 1872 he moved to Strasbourg, and in 1887 to Leipzig. He devoted his early works to the history of law, carefully studying the sources and realizing the impossibility of separating the history of Germanic law from Roman and canon law. He published a work on the institutions of Roman law, which was very successful (Institutionen, Geschichte und System des römischen Privatrechts, 1887; 17th ed. ed. by Mitteis and Wenger, 1923). His various works on canon law or otherwise concerning the Catholic Church (Das Verhältnis von Staat und Kirche, 1873; Kirchengeschichte im Grundriss, 1888; Kirchenrecht, part 1, 1882; Wesen und Ursprung des Katholizismus, 1909; Das altbabylonische Kirchenrecht und das Dekret Gratians, 1918), tend to highlight in the juridical order of the Church a deviation from the divine institution, an abandonment of spirituality for earthly things, a clear reflection of his Protestant faith. From 1891 to 1896 S. was a member of the study commission for the German Civil Code, presided over by P. Spahn.