MOSER, JOHANN JACOB, a German writer on public law, and one of the most voluminous of modern authors, was born at Stuttgart in 1701. At the age of nineteen his acquirements raised him from the rank of a student to the dignity of professor extraordinary at the university of Tübingen. He was appointed a councillor at Stuttgart in 1726; and on the removal of the public administration from that city to Louisburg in the following year, the chair of law at Tübingen was conferred upon him. But
the impatient temper of Moser was ever apt to involve him in broils with his acquaintances. In course of time a misunderstanding with his colleagues induced him to resign his professorship. He was prevented by a similar cause from remaining longer than 1739 in the situation of director of the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. Then retiring to the small town of Ebersdorf, he devoted his time to the composition of numerous works, and especially of his chief treatise, on the Public Law of Germany. His fastidious disposition, however, had not yet found its proper sphere. He left his retirement in 1747, and after remaining in the service of Hesse-Homburg for two years, he repaired to Hanau, and founded an academy for the instruction of the young nobility in public affairs. In 1751 the office of landschaftsconsulent in Stuttgart was conferred upon him. He was apprehended in 1759 on the suspicion of having written a memorial to the Duke; and he lay for five years in the fortress of Hohentwiel. On his release he abandoned public life, and spent the rest of his days in illustrating and explaining, by means of his writings and compilations, the laws and privileges of Germany. Moser died at Stuttgart in 1785. A list of his works, which amount to about 484, has been published by Meusel.