Former Otago University law professor Alexander Szakats died on 1 July 2001 aged 86.

Dr Szakats was born in Budapest on 14 February 1915. He came to New Zealand as a refugee in 1951 after escaping from a Yugoslavian detention camp where he had been detained on suspicion of spying.

Dr Szakats already had a doctorate in law and politics from the University of Budapest but completed his LLB at Victoria University of Wellington before becoming a Reader there in the late 1960s.

From 1974 until his retirement in 1979 he was Professor of Law at Otago University.

This obituary was first published in LawTalk 566, 30 July 2001, page 4.