Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob

Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob was a German philosopher, political scientist and economist, born at Wettin near Halle on 26 February 1759 and died at Lauchstädt on 22 July 1827. He entered the University of Halle in 1777, taught at the gymnasium there from 1780 and became professor of philosophy in 1791, turning after 1800 to political economy, where he was the first in Germany to argue for a distinct science of national wealth. When Napoleon suppressed the University of Halle he went to the Russian Empire, taught at Kharkov and advised on state finances, and in 1810 he became president of the commission for the revision of criminal law. His Proposal for criminal law statutes for the Russian Empire appeared at Halle in 1818, and he also wrote on police legislation. He returned to a chair at Halle in 1816. He is placed here for that work on penal codification, not for a career in criminology as such.