Claus-Wilhelm Canaris (born 1 July 1937, Liegnitz, Germany) is a German jurist. Until his retirement in 2005 he was professor of Private Law, Commercial law and Labour law the University of Munich.
Canaris was born in Liegnitz, Germany. His father was Constantin Canaris. Canaris went to school in Königsberg, Miesbach and Düsseldorf. He studied law, philosophy and Germanistics in Paris, Geneva and Munich, where he passed the first state exam (erstes Staatsexamen) in 1961. He became scientific assistant (wissenschaftlicher Assistent) of Karl Larenz at the University of Munich and graduated with the dissertation Die Feststellung von Lücken im Gesetz (How to find lacunas in the law) in 1964 (2nd edition 1983). He habilitated in Munich in 1967 (Die Rechtsscheinhaftung im deutschen Privatrecht). His habilitation theses was a groundbreaking study on the theory of legitimate expectations equal in rank to Rudolf von Jherings operationalization of culpa in contrahendo.
He was appointed full professor at the University of Graz in 1968, at the University of Hamburg in 1969 and finally returned to Munich in 1972 taking the chair of his academic teacher Karl Larenz. In 2000 the German Minister of Justice, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, made him a member of the committee for the reform of the German law of obligations (Schuldrechtsreform). He is professor emeritus since 2004.
Memberships and honours
1989: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft1990: Member of the philosophical-historical class of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences1990: Doctor honoris causa der University of Lisbon1991: Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg1993: Doctor honoris causa of the Autonomous University of Madrid1993: Ehrendoktowürde of the University of Graz1994: Member of the Academia dei Giusprivatisti Europei, Pavia1994: Doctor honoris causa of the University of Athens1995: Member of the der Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (philosophical-historical class)1997: Honorary Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science1998: research fellowship of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies, London1999 to 2006: Secretary of the philosophical-historical class of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Vice-President in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 20052000: Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland2003: Member of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venezia2005: Doctor honoris causa of the University of Verona2006: Bayerischer Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst2008: Member of the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, Milano2009: Member of the Center for Advanced Studies of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München2012: Doctor honoris causa of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).Die Feststellung von Lücken im Gesetz, Berlin 1964, 2nd edition 1983Systemdenken und Systembegriff in der Jurisprudenz, entwickelt am Beispiel des deutschen Privatrechts, Berlin 1969, 2nd edition 1983Spanish: El sistema en la jurisprudencia (1998)Italian: Pensiero sistematico e concetto di sistema nella giurisprudenza sviluppati sul modello del diritto privato tedesco (2009)Portuguese: Pensamento sistemático e conceito de sistema na ciência do direito (2008)Die Vertrauenshaftung im deutschen Privatrecht, München 1971Bankvertragsrecht, Berlin und New York, 1975, 2nd edition 1981, 3rd edition 1988 volume 1Schweigen im Rechtsverkehr als Verpflichtungsgrund. in: Festschrift für Willburg zu 70. Geburtstag, Graz 1975, S. 77ffRecht der Wertpapiere, 12th edition, München, 1986Handelsrecht, 24th edition, München 2006Lehrbuch des Schuldrechts volume II/2, 13th edition, München 1994Die Bedeutung der iustitia distributiva im deutschen Vertragsrecht, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jahrgang 1997 Heft 7, München 1997Grundrechte und Privatrecht, Berlin New York, 1999Schuldrechtsmodernisierung 2002, München 2002.Methodenlehre der Rechtswissenschaft, 3rd edition, 1995
