Sir Guenter Heinz Treitel (26 October 1928 – 14 June 2019) was a German-born English academic and

Vinerian Professor of English Law The Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner, who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the chancellor, masters and scholars of the University ...

. 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 The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

'' 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 English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the Industrial Revolution, it shares a heritage with countries ...

. 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 The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

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 The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. 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 All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

since 1979; he was previously a Fellow of Magdalen College from 1954 to 1979.

References

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