R. von Caenegen Library
Ius Commune received a donation from professor Raoul Van Caenegem’s collection of books, named “R. Van Caenegem Library”. This donation was made by professors Georges Martyn and Dirk Heirbaut, from the Institute of Law History of the University of Gent, the group’s partner institution.
Raoul Van Caenegem began his career in 1954 at the University of Gent, where he had obtained a Doctor of Law a few years earlier. This was followed by further studies in Paris and London. In the latter city he obtained the additional degree of Doctor of History. However, it would be at the University of Gent where he would most leave his biggest mark. As a professor in various historical disciplines, he notably presented many generations of law students to the history of public law as well as private law. The educational manuals he wrote were translated into many languages and soon became world-leading standard works, such as his Historical Introduction to Private Law.
In fact, it is an impossible task to do justice enough to the great diversity of his scientific work. Few could fully appreciate the magnitude of Raoul Van Caenegem’s work. His publications were aimed at several different audiences. Medievalists knew him by his Encyclopedia of The History of the Middle Ages. English researchers praised his monographs on the beginning of Common Law, including the classic Royal Writings in England, from conquest to Glanvill. He even turned to the general public in Flanders with his History of England. The European perspective which it has always considered has been evident, among other things, in its interesting history of the European Civil Procedure. It cannot be emphasized enough that all this concerns only a very small selection of the work collected by Raoul Van Caenegem.
In addition, Raoul Van Caenegem has been a member of a large number of scientific institutions, editorial boards, academies and scientific societies, including the Europaea Academy, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society. He held chairs at Cambridge and Harvard and advised the Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte. He also chaired the internationally known journal Journal of Legal History/Legal History Review.
Raoul Van Caenegem’s fame and recognition throughout his university career are evident from the many accolades he has received over the decades. For example, he was twice a laureate of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts, winner of the Francqui Prize, winner of the Solvay Prize and honorary doctorate from three different universities. In 1995, the king granted him the title of baron. The European Society of The History of Comparative Law decided in 2014 to launch a biennial Van Caenegem award to award the best publication of a young historian of law.
Professor Emeritus Raoul Van Caenegem died on June 15, 2018, at the age of ninety. With the death of Raoul Van Caenegem, legal science has undoubtedly lost one of its most important representatives.
In 2020, the 2020 Van Caenegem Awards will be held by the European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH). The award will be awarded to a young legal historian considered to have written the best article in History of Comparative Law for the newspaper ESCLH, or in legal history compared in another newspaper in the same year, before the ESCLH conferences.
