Frederik Vinding Kruse

Who was Frederik Vinding Kruse?

Louis Frederik Vinding Kruse was a Danish jurist. From 1914 to 1950 he was a professor at the school formerly known as Rets- og Statsvidenskabelige Fakultet of the University of Copenhagen.

He was one of the most beloved jurists of his time and was awarded the Hans Christian Ørsted Medal in 1933 for his five-volume work Ejendomsretten.

In 1940, he was offered a position with the German government which he refused, although he had sympathy with the goals of the right-wing political current in Europe.

After World War II, he was accused of having been a Nazi by rival professor Alf Ross, but he continued his work as a legal scholar and author.

Vinding Kruse was an adherent to the pure philosophy of natural law and was a sharp critic of the idea that courts should consist of an elite group to compel the masses toward a higher moral condition by controlling man's natural evil tendencies. In this respect also Alf Ross came to be a major opponent of Vinding Kruse, and the main focus of Vinding Kruse's sharp criticism was Alf Ross' dissertation, Læren om Retskilderne, which was a major factor in Vinding Kruse's recommendation that Alf Ross not remain part of the Faculty.