German jurist and jurisprudent (1937–2021)
Claus-Wilhelm Canaris (1 July 1937 – 5 March 2021[1]) was a German jurist. Until his retirement in 2005 he was professor of Private Law, Commercial law and Labour law the University of Munich.
Life
Canaris was born in Liegnitz, Germany. His father was Constantin Canaris. Canaris went to school in Königsberg, Miesbach and Düsseldorf.[2] He studied law, philosophy and Germanistics in Paris, Geneva and Munich, where he passed the first state exam (erstes Staatsexamen) in 1961.[2] He became scientific assistant (wissenschaftlicher Assistent) of Karl Larenz at the University of Munich and graduated with the dissertation Die Feststellung von Lücken im Gesetz (How to find lacunas in the law) in 1964 (2nd edition 1983).[2] He habilitated in Munich in 1967 (Die Rechtsscheinhaftung im deutschen Privatrecht).[2] His habilitation thesis was a groundbreaking study on the theory of legitimate expectations equal in rank to Rudolf von Jherings operationalization of culpa in contrahendo.[2]
He was appointed full professor at the University of Graz in 1968, at the University of Hamburg in 1969 and finally returned to Munich in 1972 taking the chair of his academic teacher Karl Larenz.[2] In 2000 the German Minister of Justice, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, made him a member of the committee for the reform of the German law of obligations (Schuldrechtsreform).[2] He was professor emeritus from 2004 to his death.
