Willem Zwalve

Zwalve was born 7 September 1949 in Groningen.^[1] In his youth he had an interest in studying ancient languages or history, but his father stated: "I don't want to subsidize hobbies". Zwalve thus started studying law in 1968.^[2] While working as a scientific employee Zwalve became inspired by watching Herman Jan Scheltema [nl] and others work on a translation of the Corpus Juris Civilis.^[3] Zwalve obtained his PhD at the University of Groningen in 1981 with a thesis titled: "Proeve ener theorie der denegatio actionis : een onderzoek naar de positie van de magistraat in het Romeinse burgerlijke procesrecht", a work on Roman civil procedure.^[1][2] Zwalve was a professor of law and comparative law at the University of Groningen from 1987 until 1993. He was professor of legal history at Leiden University from 1993 until 2014.^[1]

Zwalve was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.^[4] German jurist Reinhard Zimmermann has described Zwalve's "Hoofdstukken uit de geschiedenis van het Europese privaatrecht" as a pioneering historical and comparative study.^[5]