ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Aleksejs Petrazickis provides a brief biographical sketch of Leon Petrażycki who was born on April 17, 1867 (per the Julian calendar) at the Hory estate (now in Belarus). He descended from Alexander Petrażycki, a 17th-century Polish noble. Leon graduated with high honors from Vitebsk High School and enrolled at the University of Kiev, where he studied law. Upon graduating, he conducted research at the University of Berlin for 5 years. During the next 2 decades, he worked at the University of St. Petersburg, where he completed his doctoral thesis and published numerous books and articles. In 1906, he was elected to the Russian State Duma from the Constitutional Democratic Party. As punishment for protesting against the Duma’s dissolution, he was sentenced to 3 months in jail. In 1909, he married Maria Kalisz. Petrażycki was reinstated as a full professor at the University and actively participated in editing and writing for law journals. After the October 1917 revolution, he had to flee Russia. He and his wife settled in Warsaw, where he continued with his teaching and research activity; the latter being hampered by the loss of his manuscripts. He suffered from the death of relatives during the First World War and the October revolution, and from an ill health. On May 15, 1931, Petrażycki took his own life.
