Sir Guenter Heinz Treitel (26 October 1928 – 14 June 2019) was a German-born English academic and Vinerian Professor of English Law. Treitel was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

into a Jewish family, the son of a prominent lawyer, Theodor Treitel, and his wife, Hannah Lilly Levy. In March 1939, he came to England on the '' Kindertransport'' together with his older brother, Kurt Max Treitel, and sister Celia. Treitel was once described by Lord Steyn as "one of the most distinguished academic writers on the

law of contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

in the English speaking world", and has often been described as the leading authority on English contract law. He was the author of ''Treitel on the Law of Contract'', a seminal work on English contract law. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1977. In 1983, he became a Trustee of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

and in 1984 became a Member of the Council of the National Trust. Treitel retired as Vinerian Professor in 1997 and received a knighthood for services to law. Treitel had been a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford since 1979; he was previously a Fellow of Magdalen College from 1954 to 1979.

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1928 births 2019 deaths Academics from Berlin Kindertransport refugees Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People educated at Kilburn Grammar School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford 20th-century English lawyers Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Vinerian Professors of English Law Fellows of the British Academy Knights Bachelor Lawyers awarded knighthoods English legal scholars English barristers Trustees of the British Museum National Trust people {{UK-law-bio-stub