RICH VON (1816-1895), German jurist and politician, was born at Berlin on Aug. 13, 1816, the son of a judge attached to the "Kammergericht" (court of appeal) in that city. After re ceiving his school education at the gymnasium at Eisleben in Prussian Saxony, he entered the University of Berlin in 1833 as a student of jurisprudence, and became a pupil of Savigny (q.v.). Proceeding to the degree of doctor juris in 1838, young Gneist chose the judicial branch of the legal profession, and was admitted Assessor in 1841. He spent the next few years in Italy, France and England. On his return in 1844 he was appointed extraordinary professor of Roman law in Berlin university, and thus began a professorial connection which ended only with his death. He continued his judicial career, and became successively assistant judge of the superior court and of the supreme tribunal. But to a mind constituted like his, the want of elasticity in the procedure of the courts was galling. Feeling the necessity for fundamental re forms in legal procedure, he published, in his Trial by Jury.
In 1848 Gneist threw himself with ardour into the constitutional struggles of Prussia, and in 185o resigned his judgeship. Entering the National Liberal party, he began both in writing and speeches actively to champion their cause, now busying himself pre-emi nently with the study of constitutional law and history. In 1853 appeared his Adel and Rittersc/ia f t in England, and in 1857 the Geschichte and heutige Gestalt der Amter in England, a pamphlet primarily written to combat the Prussian abuses of administration, but for which the author also claimed that it had not been with out its effect in modifying certain views that had until then ruled in England itself. In 1858 Gneist was appointed ordinary profes sor of Roman law, and entered the Abgeordnetenhaus of the Prus sian Landtag, in which assembly he sat thenceforward until 1893. He at once became one of the leading spokesmen of the Left. His chief oratorical triumphs are associated with the early period of his membership of the House ; two noteworthy occasions being his violent attack (Sept. 1862) upon the Government budget in con nection with the reorganization of the Prussian army, and his de fence (1864) of the Polish chiefs of the (then) grand-duchy of Posen, who were accused of high treason. In 1857-63 was pub lished Das heutige englische V er f assungs and V erwaltungsrecht, a work which, contrasting English and German constitutional law and administration, aimed at exercising political pressure upon the Government of the day. In 1868 Gneist became a member of the North German parliament. On the establishment of German unity his mandate was renewed for the Reichstag, and he was an active and prominent member until 1884. In the Kulturkampf he sided with the Government against the attacks of the Clericals. In 1879, together with his colleague, von Hanel, he successfully at tacked the motion for the prosecution of certain Socialist mem bers. He was parliamentary reporter for the committees on all great financial and administrative questions, and his advice was frequently sought, not only in his own but also in other countries. In Prussia he largely influenced legislation, the reform of the judicial and penal systems and the new constitution of the Evan gelical Church being largely his work. He was also consulted by the Japanese Government when a constitution was being intro duced into that country. In 1875-77 he was a member of the supreme administrative court (Oberverwaltungsgericht) of Prus sia. In 1882 was published his Englische Verfassungsgeschic/ite (trans. History of the English Constitution, 1886), a standard work. In 1888 one of the first acts of Frederick III., who had al ways, as crown prince, shown great admiration for him, was to ennoble Gneist, and attach him as instructor in constitutional law to his son. He died in Berlin on July 22, 1895.
Gneist was a jurist of a special type. To him law was not mere theory, but living force; and this conception of its power ani mates all his schemes of practical reform. As a teacher he exer cised a magnetic influence over his pupils. He was a man of noble bearing, religious, and imbued with a stern sense of duty. He was proud of being a "Preussischer Junker" (a member of the Prussian squirearchy), and he clung loyally to monarchial institutions. A great admirer and a true friend of England, to which country he was attached by many personal ties, he sur passed all other Germans in his efforts to make her free institu tions, in which he found his ideal, the common heritage of the two great nations of the Teutonic race.
Gneist's other works include: Budget and Gesetz each dem constitutionellen Staatsrecht Englands (1867) ; Freie Advocatur (1867); Der Rechtsstaat (1872; 2nd ed., 1879); Zur Verwalt ungsre f orrn in Preussen (Leipzig, 188o) ; Das englische Parla ment Eng. trans. The English Parliament, 1886; 3rd ed. 1889) ; Die Militar-Vorlage von 1892 and der preussische Ver f assungscon flikt von 1862 bis i866 (1893) ; Die nationale Rechts idee von den Standen and das preussische Dreiklassenwahlsys tem (1895) ; Die ver f assungsmassige Stellung des preussischen Gesammtministeriurns See O. Gierke, Rudolph von Gneist, Geddchtnisrede (1895), an In Memoriam address delivered in Berlin.