Fritz Fleiner, born 24 January 1867 in Aarau, died 26 October 1937 in Ascona, received his academic education at the Universities of Zurich, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris, before he was promoted and habilitated in public law of the religion communities in 1890 and 1892, and in consequence was private lecturer and later extraordinary professor at the University of Zurich from 1892 on.
In 1897, he settled over to the University of Basel, where he was as an ordinary professor in charge of public law, i.e. federal constitutional and administrative law. In 1906 he was called to the University of Tubingen, in 1908 he changed to the University of Heidelberg, elaborating a masterful work on the “Institutionen des Deutschen Verwaltungsrecht” (1911), a general theory of the administrative law, that stands in the tradition of the famous Otto Mayer.
Between 1915 and 1936 he had the ordinary chair at the University of Zurich, back in his home country, where in 1916 he held his famous inaugural lecture in subject of “Entwicklung und Wandlung moderner Staatstheorien in der Schweiz”. He virtually introduced modern administrative studies to Switzerland. In 1923, he published his main work about “Schweizerisches Bundesstaatsrecht”, later further developed together with his colleague Zaccaria Giacometti. He had a liberal mentality and a specific historical and political approach to public law, and he therefore intended to strengthen the rule of law, the fundamental liberties and freedoms and he promoted the establishment and enlargement of a constitutional and administrative jurisdiction.
For further information, please consult:
A. Im Hof: Fritz Fleiner, in: Schweizer Juristen der letzten hundert Jahre, mit einem Vorwort von Max Huber, mit einer historischen Einleitung von Eduard His, ed. Hans Schulthess, Schulthess & Co. A.-G., Zürich 1945, pp. 455ss.;
Felix Renner: Der Verfassungsbegriff im staatsrechtlichen Denken der Schweiz im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Dissertation Universität Zürich), Zürich: Schulthess & Co., 1968, pp. 270 ss.;
Giovanni Biaggini: Fritz Fleiner, in: Staatsrechtslehrer des 20. Jahrhunderts, Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 111 ss.
Selected Works of the Author
Fritz Fleiner: Institutionen des deutschen Verwaltungsrechts, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 8. ed. 1928; Idem: Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden, Zürich: Polyagraphischer Verlag AG, 1941; Idem: Entstehung und Wandlung modernen Staatstheorien in der Schweiz, in: Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden, Zürich: Polygraphischer Verlag AG, 1941, pp. 288ss.; Idem (later editions together with Zaccaria Giacometti): Schweizerisches Bundesstaatsrecht, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1923 (3. ed. Zürich: Polygraphischer Verlag, 1949; reprint 1969).