Von Mehren, Arthur T. 1922–2006

(Arthur Taylor von Mehren)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born August 10, 1922, in Albert Lea, MN; died of pneumonia, January 16, 2006, in Cambridge, MA. Von Mehren was a former professor at Harvard University who was a scholar of international and comparative law. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1942, he earned his law degree there in 1945 and a Ph.D. in government the next year. He then studied in Zurich, Switzerland, and at the University of Paris, honing his language skills in German and French while also studying the laws of those countries. He returned home to join the Harvard faculty in 1946, becoming a full professor of law in 1953 and retiring as Story Professor of Law Emeritus in 1993. During his years at Harvard, von Mehren founded the Joseph Story Fellow program for young German academics, and in his early career there was chief of the Legislation Branch of the Legal Division for the U.S. Office of Military Government in Berlin. Considered a leader in international comparative law, he was a founder and former president of the American Society of Comparative Law, an advisor for the Private International Law for the U.S. Department of State, and an editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law. Von Mehren was the author, coauthor, or editor of numerous scholarly texts as well, including The Civil Law System: Cases and Materials for the Comparative Study of Law (1957; 2nd edition, 1976), Law in the United States (1988), International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law (1997), and Law and Justice in a Multistate World (2002).

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PERIODICALS

New York Times, January 29, 2006, p. A26.