Boehmer, Justus Henning

BOEHMER, JUSTUS HENNING: A jurist who made important contributions to the study of Roman and still more of canon law; b. at Hanover Jan. 29, 1674; d. at Halle Aug. 23 or 29, 1749, as chancellor of the duchy of Magdeburg and head of the faculty of law at Halle. He rendered a great service to the continuity of Protestant church law in that he was the first to show the adaptability of the older canonical principles to post-Reformation conditions. This was made possible by his profound knowledge of church history and his extensive theoretical and practical acquaintance with both the common and the statute law. In the question of the relation of Church and State he declared for the territorial system. Out of the large number of his writings may be mentioned the Duodecim dissertationes juris ecclesiastici ad Plinium Secundum et Tertullianum (2d ed., Halle, 1729); Entwurf des Kirchenstaats derer ersten drei Jahrhundert . . . (1733); Institutiones juris canonici (5th ed., 1770); Jus ecclesiasticum Protestantium (6 vols., 1714); and an edition of the Corpus juris canonici (2 vols., 1747), valuable for its notes, index, and appendices. He also made some contributions to church hymnody. He was the founder of a family of jurists, two of whom deserve mention for their contributions to the study of canon law. These are his son, Georg Ludwig, b. 1715; d. 1797, as head of the law faculty at Göttingen; author of Principia juris canonici (Göttingen,1762), which was used in the revision of the Prussian laws; and Georg Ludwig's son, Georg Wilhelm (1761–1839), who published Grundriss des protestantischen Kirchenrechts (Göttingen,1786) and other cognate works.

(E. Friedberg.)

Bibliography: Nicéron, Mémoires; C. G. Haubold, Institutiones juris Romani literariæ, p. 153, Leipsic, 1819; ADB, iii, 79 sqq., 1876; J. F. Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und Litteratur des canonischen Rechts, vol. iii, part 2, pp. 92 sqq., Stuttgart, 1880; W. Schrader, Geschichte der Friedrichs-Universität zu Halle, i, 146 sqq., Berlin, 1894.