Dominicus Arumaeus

Who was Dominicus Arumaeus?

Dominicus Arumaeus was a Dutch jurist.

Born Douwe van Arum in Friesland, he studied law in Franeker, Oxford, Rostock and finally Jena, where he married Anna Pingitzer on March 31, 1600. He remained there as a professor, rector and councillor at Weimar and was buried in Jena on Feb 27 1637.

In his five-volume Discursus academici de iure publico, Arumaeus pioneered public law as a distinct field of study. Influenced by Dutch humanism, his methodical analysis of the constitutional law of the Holy Roman Empire focused no longer on Roman law but on Imperial sources of public law, such as Imperial basic laws and electoral capitulations.