Barnabas David Johnson was born on 8 May 1943 in Primavera, Paraguay, South America, of British parents. His first language was German. His childhood companions were mostly refugees from Nazi oppression whose parents sought peace through ‘intentional community’ as ordained in the Sermon on the Mount. Members had no private property or, eventually, the right to independent inquiry and thought.

Barnabas was expelled from this communal enterprise at age 14, following two glorious years on a large communal farm in North Dakota. His early ideas about music, science, intelligence, governance, feedback-cultivation, and freedom of inquiry arose, one might suppose, during long nights driving a tractor. These ideas did not support the prevailing faith-trend, however, which was becoming fatally evidence-averse.

Most of his best college education was in night school, when he worked days as a land surveyor. An eventual full-time student, he won his university’s oratory championship. His topic was global population constraints. During this time Barnabas was also much engaged in civil rights and anti-war activism.

He received his Juris Doctorate from Harvard University in 1970, where he focused on international and comparative law. Following service in St. Louis as a government lawyer, in 1976 Barnabas commenced research for Prof. Harold J. Berman of Harvard on the origins and coevolution (in essence) of the legal and judicial professions. Barnabas is a fifth-generation lawyer. In 1983 he helped found, and thereafter managed, the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary (1983-1989), a loose-leaf service that profiled and evaluated all federal judges in the United States.

Starting in 1989, Barnabas worked with his wife, Lowry Wyman (1950-2015), on post-Soviet law reform and legal-education reform. During 1998-2003, Dr. Johnson was Professor of Law at the American University of Armenia, where he served as Director of the Legal Research Center, Associate Dean, and on-site manager of the new AUA Department of Law, then affiliated with the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley.

Wyman and Johnson were advisors to Lithuania when it sought its independence from the USSR in

1990-91. The first version of what has become the Constitution of Jurlandia was drafted at the request of President Vytautas Landsbergis in the days following the attempted Soviet takeover of Lithuania on 13 January 1991. A revised version was the basis of the Proposed Alternative Constitution of Kazakhstan, 1995. The original constitutional texts (English and Russian) were published on the early Internet (RUSS-L) in 1991, and an Armenian-language version was prepared in 2001 as a teaching tool to promote constitutional reform in Armenia. www.jurlandia.org

Barnabas is survived by two older and five younger siblings, who remember his musicality, always playing piano and recorders, whistling, a fine voice, full of song, rejoicing in conducting

Canons (Dona Nobis Pacem was a great favourite). Barnabas took delight reciting Jabberwocky and myriad other poems, often in a ‘recital stand off’ with big brother Tim. He was strong of arm, a favourite with nephews and nieces and a good and loyal friend. The family, most of whom reside in England, are deeply indebted to Timmi and Rory Sellers, who supported Barnabas in his last few years in residential care at 75 State Street, and thank all the staff there for their support and care for Barnabas. He will live long in his writing and our memories. 

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