1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moser, Johann Jakob

MOSER, JOHANN JAKOB (1701–1785), German jurist, was born at Stuttgart on the 18th of January 1701. He studied at the university of Tübingen, where, at the early age of nineteen, he was appointed extraordinary professor of law. In 1729 he became ordinary professor, and in 1736 he accepted a chair and directorship in the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. On account, however, of differences with King Frederick William I. of Prussia, he resigned these offices in 1739 and retired to Ebersdorf, a village in the principality of Reuss, where for several years he devoted himself wholly to study, and especially to the production of his Deutsches Staatsrecht. In 1751 he was recalled to Würtemberg as district counsellor, and in 1759 was imprisoned at Hohentwiel on account of the steps he had taken in connexion with this office against certain tyrannical proceedings of the duke. In 1764 he received his liberty and was restored to office. He died on the 30th of September 1785. Moser was the first to discuss in an adequate form the subject of European international law. He wrote more than 500 volumes, his principal works being Deutsches Staatsrecht (1737–1754), Neues deutsches Staatsrecht (1766–1775), Deutsches Staatsarchiv (1751–1757), Grundriss der heutigen Staatsverfassung von Deutschland (1754).

See Schmid, Das Leben J. J. Mosers (1868); Schulze, J. J. Moser, der Vater des deutschen Staatsrechts (1869).