SOHM, RUDOLF. – Protestant jurist, born on 29 October 1841 in Rostock, died on 16 May 1917 in Leipzig.
Having become extraordinary professor at the University of Göttingen in 1870, he was called to Freiburg im Breisgau to occupy the chair of canon law. In 1872 he moved to Strasbourg, and in 1887 to Leipzig. He devoted his first works to the history of law, studying its sources carefully and recognizing the impossibility of separating the history of Germanic law from that of Roman and canon law. He published a work on the institutions of Roman law, which met with great success (Institutionen, Geschichte und System des römischen Privatrechts, 1887; 17th ed., edited by Mittels and Wenger, 1923). His various works on canon law, or in any case concerning the Catholic Church (Das Verhältnis von Staat und Kirche, 1873; Kirchengeschichte im Grundriss, 1888; Kirchenrecht, part 1, 1892; Wesen und Ursprung des Katholizismus, 1909; Das altkatholische Kirchenrecht und das Dekret Gratianus, 1918), tend to identify in the Church’s juridical order a deviation from divine institution, an abandonment of spirituality in favor of earthly things, an evident reflection of his Protestant faith. From 1891 to 1896 S. was a member of the commission charged with studying the German Civil Code, chaired by P. Spahn.