Geoffroi Jacques Flach

Who was Geoffroi Jacques Flach?

Geoffroi Jacques Flach was a French jurist and historian born at Strasbourg, Alsace, of a family known at least as early as the 16th century, when Sigismond Flach was the first professor of law at University of Strasbourg.

G.J. Flach studied classics and law at Strasbourg, and in 1869 took his degree of doctor of law. In his theses as well as in his early writings such as De la subrogation réelle, La Bonorum possessio, and Sur la durée des effets de la minorité he endeavored to explain the problems of laws by means of history, an idea which was new to France at that time. The Franco-Prussian War engaged Flach's activities in other directions, and he spent two years at work on the rebuilding of the library and the museum, which had been destroyed by Prussian shells.

When the time came for him to choose between Germany and France, he settled definitely in Paris, where he completed his scientific training at the École des Chartes and the École des Hautes Études. Having acted for some time as secretary to Jules Sénard, ex-president of the Constituent Assembly, he published an original paper on artistic copyright, but as soon as possible resumed the history of law. In 1879 he became assistant to the jurist Édouard René de Laboulaye at the Collège de France, and succeeded him in 1884 in the chair of comparative legislation.