[1] He served as president of the (Lübeck based) Oberappellationsgericht der vier Freien Städte (High Court of Appeal of the Four Free Cities) for more than three decades and is identified in certain academic circles as a leading representative of the 19th century German Historical School of Jurisprudence.

[4] His father; Johann Ludwig Barthold Heise (1749–1812), was a Hamburg merchant who lost his wealth thanks to the ruinous economic impact of the world war (as it was frequently known at the time).

A couple of years after this he transferred to Göttingen which is where, early in 1802, he received his doctorate for a dissertation on laws governing inheritance, entitled "de successoribus necessariis".

Directly before settling in Heidelberg, however, he married Sophia Georgina Elisabeth "Betty" Isenbart, the daughter of a colonel from Hanover whom he had met in the house of his friend Christoph Martin.

He now gave up teaching and embarked on a new career in public service, taking a job as a senior advocate ("Vortragender Rat") in the regional justice department.

[2] However, he had already let it be known that were the opportunity to arise he would welcome the chance to move back to his own home city, Hamburg, where following the ending of the French occupation, restructuring of the political and legal systems was also very much on the agenda.

After a certain amount of jostling between the politicians involved, the Oberappellationsgericht der vier Freien Städte (High Court of Appeal of the four Free Cities) was established in Lübeck in 1820.

[1] Under his leadership its reputation grew within and beyond the "four free cities", as it was appointed to arbitrate in cases involving intergovernmental disputes between other component states of the German Confederation.