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Robert Warden Lee (14 December 1868, Flintshire, Wales - 6 January 1958, London, England) was a British jurist and legal academic best known for his study of and writings on Roman-Dutch law.

Early life and education
Lee was born in Flinshire, Wales on 14 December 1868 to Rev. Matthew Henry Lee, the Canon of St Asaph, and his wife Louisa, daughter of Robert Warden. He was educated in Rossall and later obtained degrees cum laude in classical mods and literae humaniores from Balliol College, Oxford.

Lee received a doctorate in civil law at Oxford in 1917.

He was awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Lyon, Ceylon and the Witwatersrand. Sir James Rose Innes and Sir John Gilbert Kotzé were also honoured at the Witwatersrand ceremony. In 1933, Lee became a Fellow of the British Academy.

Career
Lee's study of the Roman-Dutch legal system started in 1891 when he joined the Ceylon Civil Service through a competitive examination in 1891 and served as a magistrate. Ceylon, like Sri Lanka still does today, subscribed to the Roman-Dutch law He retired for health reasons in 1894, retiring for health reasons. Lee then started teaching law and in 1896 was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn. He served as the junior counsel for the respondent in the noted case of Samaradiwakara v. de Saram in 1911.

He lectured jurisprudence from 1903 to 1914 at Worcester College, Oxford and was made a professor of Roman-Dutch Law at University College London in 1906. In 1911, Lee was admitted as an advocate in the Transvaal Province in South Africa. In 1914, he became the Dean of the McGill University Faculty of Law in Canada as well as the Gale Professor of Roman Law, a position he held until 1921. He was admitted to the Bar of Quebec in 1917 and was elevated to King's Counsel in 1920. Lee became the Rhodes Chair of Roman-Dutch Law at Oxford (until 1955) and a Fellow of All Souls in 1921, as well as a reader in Roman and Roman-Dutch Law at the Inns of Court in London.

In 1934, Lee became a bencher of Gray's Inn and Treasurer in 1945. He was the President of the Grotius Society between 1931 to 1933.

In 1956, Lee succeeded Roscoe Pound as the elected President of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

Personal life and death
In 1914, Lee married Amice Macdonnell, daughter of Sir John Macdonell. They had one daughter, Imogen.

Lee's left leg was amputated in 1955 for gangrene. He died in London on Monday, 6 January 1958, at the age of 90.

Notable works

 * Lee RW. "The Fate of Roman-Dutch Law in the British Colonies". (1906). 7 Journal of Comparative Legislation (New Series) 356.
 * (Co-author) Part II of The Commercial Laws of the World. (1912). London.
 * Lee RW. Introduction to Roman Dutch Law. (1st edition, 1915) (5th edition, 1953). Oxford University Press.
 * Lee RW. The Jurisprudence of Holland. (1st volume, 1926) (2nd volume, 1936). Oxford University Press.
 * A translation of Hugo Grotius' Inleydinge tot de Hollantsche Rechtsgeleertheit. (1613).
 * Lee RW. "Law of Contract" in Jenks' Digest of English Civil Law. (4th edition, 1947). Butterworth & Company.
 * Lee RW and Honoré T. The South African Law of Obligations. (1950). Durban: Butterworths.
 * Lee RW and Honoré T. The South African Law of Property, Family Relations and Succession. (1954). Durban: Butterworths.
 * Lee RW. Elements of Roman Law. (4th edition, 1956). Sweet & Maxwell.
 * Lee RW. "The Disappearing Roman Law". (1957). 74 South African Law Journal 79.