Charles Sumner Lobingier (April 30, 1866 – April 28, 1956) was an American jurist who served as a judge of the Philippine Court of First Instance (now the Regional Trial Court) from 1904 to 1914 and as Judge of the United States Court for China in Shanghai from 1914 to 1924. He was also the author of a number of books on international and comparative law.
Early life and education
Lobingier's paternal grandparents settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s, but Charles was born in Lanark, Illinois on April 30, 1866. He graduated from high school in Hebron, Nebraska, and he also taught school in that area before entering the University of Nebraska in 1884. Initially, he spent a year at the university's Latin School, where he was a classmate of Roscoe Pound.
At the University of Nebraska Lobingier earned an AB degree in 1888 (with Honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa), an AM in 1892 and an LLM in 1894. He was admitted to the Nebraska bar in 1890, practised there for ten years from 1892 to 1902, and married Ellen Ballon Hunker on 31 November 1898. From 1900 to 1903 he was a Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska and he was granted a PHD from that institution in 1903.
Career
Lobingier served as a member of the Nebraska Court Commission from 1902-1903. (The Commission was created to assist the Nebraska Supreme Court in eliminating the backlog of cases that had accrued over several years.) In 1904, after a year in this quasi-judicial position, he was appointed to the Philippines Court of First Instance and served in the Philippines for 10 years. Following the resignation of Rufus Thayer as a Judge of the United States Court for China in 1913, Lobingier accepted an appointment to act as judge of that court from 1914. In 1917, Lobingier gave evidence before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the operation of the United States Court for China and in 1920 he compiled and edited case reports of the United States Court for China as well as other decisions relating to extraterritoriality from other courts including the British Supreme Court for China and Japan. He completed his 10-year term in 1924 and was succeeded by Milton D. Purdy.
Academic appointments
Over the years, Lobingier taught law at the University of Nebraska, the University of the Philippines Law School, the University of California, the Comparative Law School of China, and at the National University School of Law in Washington, D.C. (which later merged with George Washington University's law school). Lobingier's longest-lasting teaching post was with National University, where he began teaching Civil Law in 1926 and ultimately, according to his own words, he taught courses in "analytical and historical Roman Law, the Institutes of Justinian, the evolution of modern civil law, and the principles of modern civil law." Among his writings is "The Evolution of the Roman Law" (1923) which he used as a text in some of his courses. In 1949 he was appointed as Honorary Consultant in Modern Civil Law by the Library of Congress. Lobingier was to become Professor of Roman and Modern Civil Law at American university in 1950, but he never assumed that post.
Law practice, ABA work, and the Riccobono Seminar
Lobingier's teaching positions were mostly part-time, and he practised law as a government attorney for many years. He was a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1925-1927, Special Counsel to the U.S.-Mexico Claims Commission in 1929-30, and a lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1934 to about 1950. Lobingier also served as a legal adviser to the U.S. Military government of Korea in 1946.
One of Lobingier's most important professional activities was his work in the American Bar Association's Comparative Law Bureau, where he was an editor from 1907-1933. At the Comparative Law Bureau he successfully lobbied for publication by the Bureau of Samuel Parsons Scott's translation of Las Siete Partidas (for which he also wrote an introduction). Another of Lobingier's significant professional endeavors was his leadership in the Riccobono Seminar of Roman Law in America. He was the Seminar's magister more than once, and he presented many papers there.
Death and legacy
Lobingier died on April 28, 1956.
The Lobingier Professorship was established at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 1978 through an endowment from the Charles S. Lobingier estate. The first incumbent of the chaired professorship was Leroy Sorenson Merrifield, who became a GW Law School professor emeritus.
Writings
Some Original and Peculiar Features of the Nebraska Constitution, 15 ANNALS AM. ACADEMY POL. & SOC. SCI. 121-125 (1900).