Ohonovsky, Oleksander

Ohonovsky, Oleksander [Огоновський, Олександер; Ohonovs’kyj], b 17 March 1848 in Bukachivtsi, Rohatyn county, Galicia, d 10 February 1891 in Lviv. Lawyer, legal scholar, and civic leader; brother of Ilarii Ohonovsky, Omelian Ohonovsky, and Petro Ohonovsky. After graduating from Lviv University (LL D, 1871), he practiced law and, from 1878, taught law at Lviv University. He was the first law professor to lecture in Ukrainian at the university, and he made an important contribution to the development of Ukrainian legal terminology, even though he did not manage to publish the Ukrainian legal dictionary he compiled. In 1886 he was appointed dean of the law faculty. Ohonovsky was a specialist in Austrian civil law and wrote the monographs Die Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag nach dem österreichischen Rechte (1877) and Österreichisches Ehengüterrecht (1880). He was active in Ukrainian civic organizations and helped to found a number of societies, such as Druzhnyi Lykhvar, Prosvita societies, the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and the Ridna Shkola society. He was editor of the political journal Pravda (1872–6) and cofounder and first president of the People's Council.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]