JOHANN GOTTLIEB

HEINECCIUS (1681-1741)  , German jurist, was born on the 11th of September 1681 at Eisenberg, Altenburg . He studied theology at Leipzig, and law at Halle; and at the latter university he was appointed in 1713 professor of philosophy, and in 1718 professor of jurisprudence . He subsequently filled legal chairs at Franeker in Holland and at Frankfort, but finally returned to Halle in 1733 as professor of philosophy and jurisprudence . He died there on the 31st of August 1741 . Heineccius belonged to the school of philosophical jurists . He endeavoured to treat law as a rational science, and not merely as an empirical art whose rules had no deeper source than expediency . Thus he continually refers to first principles, and he develops his legal doctrines as a system of philosophy . His chief works were Antiquitatum Romanarum jurisprudentiam illustrantium syntagma (1718), Historia juris civilis Romani ac Germanici (1733), Elementa juris Germanici (1735), Elementa juris naturae et gentium (1737; Eng. trans. by Turnbull, 2 vols., London, 1763) . Besides these works he wrote on purely philosophical subjects, and edited the works of several of the classical jurists . His Opera omnia (9 vols., Geneva, 1771, &c.) were edited by his son Johann Christian Gottlieb Heineccius (1718-1791) . Heineccius's brother, JOHANN MICHAEL HEINECCIUS (1674-1722), was a well-known preacher and theologian, but is re-membered more from the fact that he was the first to make a systematic study of seals, concerning which he left a book, De veteribus Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis (Leipzig, 1710; and ed., 1719) .