| Ernst Levy | |
| Birth Date: | 23 December 1881 |
| Birth Place: | Berlin, Prussia |
| Death Place: | Davis, California |
| Nationality: | German American |
| Fields: | History of law |
| Alma Mater: | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Emil Seckel |
| Children: | Wolfgang (1910 - 2001), Brigitte (1912–1981) |
Ernst Levy (23 December 1881 – 14 September 1968) was a German American legal scholar and historian of law.[1] He earned a doctorate in law at the University of Berlin in 1906 and began his teaching career at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1914.[2] After serving in the army, Levy was named Professor of Roman Law at the Goethe University Frankfurt, where he taught from 1919-1922, followed Otto Lenel as Professor of Roman Law at the University of Freiburg from 1922-1928, and then taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1928-1935.[3] Being Jewish, he was forced to retire in 1935, and decided to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the University of Washington in the United States, where he was a Professor of Law and History from 1937 to 1952.[4]
Born in Berlin, Levy studied law at both the University of Freiburg and the Humboldt University of Berlin, earning his doctorate under Emil Seckel in 1906.[5] He briefly worked at the Amtsgericht in Oranienburg, and served in World War I in the artillery before earning a professorship at Frankfurt. Due to the Nuremberg Laws he had to retire in 1935, and then moved to the United States.[6] During his career Levy was managing editor of the Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte for nine years and was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship.[7] Levy also served as "magister" of the Riccobono Seminar at the Catholic University of America in 1944.[8] He was a prolific scholar[9] and was the recipient of honorary degrees from both the University of Frankfurt and the University of Heidelberg in 1949.[10]