Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach

Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (November 14, 1775 – May 29, 1833) was a German legal scholar.

Biography

He was born at Jena, where he studied philosophy and law. At 23 he came into prominence by a vigorous criticism of Hobbes's theory on civil power. Soon afterwards, in lectures on criminal jurisprudence he set forth his famous theory, that in administering justice judges should bestrictly limited in their decisions by the penal code. This new doctrine gave rise to a party called Rigorists, who supported his theory.Von Feuerbach was the originator of the famous maxim "nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali": "There's no crime and hence there shall not be punishment if at the time no penal law existed"

He held professorships in Jena and in Kiel, and in 1804 was appointed to an official post in Munich. In 1814 he became president of the Court of Appeal at Anspach. His chief work was the framing of a penal code for Bavaria, which became a model for several other countries.

He was the father of the philosopher Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach and the mathematician Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach; and the grandfather of the painter Anselm Feuerbach.

Writings

*Feuerbach, Paul Johann Anselm, Ritter von: "The Wild Child The unsolved mystery of Kaspar Hauser." Translated from the German with an Introduction by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson/ NY Free Press 1997 1st ppb ptg ISBN 0 684 83096 5