BEHREND, JACOB FRIEDRICH

BEHREND, JACOB FRIEDRICH (1833–1907), German jurist. Behrend became a law clerk in 1859, in 1864 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Berlin, and in 1870, associate professor of jurisprudence. From 1873 to 1887 he was professor of law at the University of Greifswald, and in 1887 became a member of the Supreme Court, one of the few Jews to achieve this distinction. He was an acknowledged expert on German and Roman law and specialized in the early sources of law. Behrend published many important works on jurisprudence which were highly regarded by scholars. His first published work was the Magdeburger Fragen ("Magdeburg Problems," 1863) which dealt with the jury system. Later Behrend edited numerous works on jurisprudence, including Zeitschrift fuer die deutsche Gesetzgebung und fuer einheitliches deutsches Recht ("Journal for German Legislation and for a Unitary German Law," 1880). His major work, Lehrbuch des Handelsrechts ("Textbook of Commercial Law"), was regarded as the first comprehensive work on this subject. Although he managed to complete only the first volume (in two parts, 1886–96), this was for many years an invaluable source of research. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung 12 (1907), 170. (B. Mordechai Ansbacher)