René David

David, René 

Born Jan. 12, 1906, in Paris. French scholar; specialist in comparative jurisprudence.

During World War II. David took part in the French Resistance. He became a professor at the University of Paris in 1945, and he has lectured at Cambridge (England) and Columbia universities and at the universities of Munich and Tehran. David codified the civil law of Ethiopia and Rwanda, and he was one of the first Western jurists to study Soviet law seriously. David summarized his findings in the book The Major Systems of Contemporary Law (1964; Russian translation, 1967).

WORKS

Traité élémentaire de droit civil comparé. Paris. 1950.
Le Droit sovietique, vols. 1–2. Paris. 1954.
Le Droit français, vols. 1–2. Paris. 1960.
Le Droit anglais. Paris, 1965.
Les Grands Systèmes de droit contemporains. Paris, 1964.