Alejandro Álvarez

Title page of the work Le droit international Americain by Alejandro Álvarez , published in 1910, on the principles and nature of the "American international law" he advocates

Manuel Alejandro Álvarez Jofré (born  February 9, 1868 in Santiago de Chile , †  July 19, 1960 in Paris ) was a Chilean lawyer and diplomat and one of the most important Latin American international lawyers of the 20th century. From 1901 he worked as a professor for comparative civil law at the Universidad de Chile and from 1906 as legal advisor to the Chilean Foreign Ministry and representative of his home country at international conferences. From 1946 to 1955 he was the only Chilean so far to serve as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague .

His work, which was shaped by internationalist and Pan-American positions, contributed significantly to the development of international law in the first half of the 20th century and to the establishment of a Latin American awareness of international law. In recognition of his achievements, he has been accepted into the Institut de France , the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas Spain and the Institut de Droit internationally , and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times .

Life

Academic and diplomatic career

The main building of the Universidad de Chile, where Alejandro Álvarez completed his law degree

Alejandro Álvarez was born in Santiago de Chile in 1868 and graduated from the Universidad de Chile in 1892 with a degree in law . Seven years later he received his doctorate from the University of Paris , where he was influenced by the later Nobel Peace Prize laureate Louis Renault . The period from 1890, in which he dealt with civil and family law as well as comparative law issues in this area , also in the context of his dissertation , is considered to be formative for his later work. From 1895 he taught comparative civil law at the Universidad de Chile, where he was appointed professor in 1901. In the years around the turn of the century, he undertook various initiatives to reform legal education in his home country, but remained largely unsuccessful. Until the beginning of the 1920s, Alejandro Álvarez lived alternately in Europe and South America before settling in Paris .

From around 1910 he began to concentrate increasingly on the area of ​​international law. During this time he worked from 1906 to 1912 as legal advisor to the Chilean Foreign Ministry, from 1907 to 1920 he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague . After the establishment of the Hague Academy for International Law in 1914, he was a member of its board of trustees. In the election of the first judges for the newly established Permanent International Court of Justice in September 1921, Alejandro Álvarez was nominated by his native Chile, as well as by Brazil and Uruguay . While he received the required majority in the League of Nations assembly, the majority of the members of the League Council elected the Belgian candidate Edouard Descamps . Also in the choice of auxiliary judges there was the same majority between Álvarez and Descamps. The Swiss Max Huber as regular judge and the Norwegian Frederik Beichmann as assistant judge were chosen as compromise candidates by both bodies. Between 1921 and 1923 Alejandro Álvarez represented his home country as a delegate at the meetings of the Assembly of the League of Nations and subsequently at various other international conferences in Europe and America.

From the 1920s on, he was primarily interested in rebuilding the international order after the First World War . In this regard, he propagated, among other things, from 1924 onwards, a concept for reforming the League of Nations based on the formation of regional or continental alliances. With these suggestions he also influenced other ideas such as the Pan-European Movement, which goes back to the Austrian writer Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi . In the 1930s he worked, among other things, under the title "Exposé des motifs et Déclaration des grands principes du droit international modern" a 40-article declaration of the fundamental principles of international law by important international professional associations of the time such as the International Law Association , the Académie Diplomatique Internationale and the Union Juridique International . During the Second World War he published several articles in Spanish based on three conferences he organized in Buenos Aires in 1941 . In these writings he viewed the Second World War on the one hand as a cataclysm and as a rift in international law, but on the other hand he was also optimistic about the beginning of a new and better era.

Judge at the International Court of Justice

The seat of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where Alejandro Álvarez was a judge from 1946 to 1955

After the end of the Second World War, Alejandro Álvarez was elected as a judge at the International Court of Justice in 1946 as the only lawyer from Chile to date . At 78 years old at the time of the election, he was the oldest of the first judges of the newly established court. The 31 states whose votes he received included 14 Latin American countries, among others, his adopted home France, Norway , the Soviet Union and South Africa . During his nine-year term of office until 1955, he was involved in twelve decisions and eight expert opinions , and gave a minor opinion in two judgments and four expert opinions as well as approving special votes in three judgments and two expert opinions .

Because of his statements, he was considered a pronounced individualist and lateral thinker as well as a "great dissenter" of the court. His special comments always contained a longer prologue in which he presented his ideas about the necessity of a "new international law" before he turned to the actual questions of the respective case. As content widely, in particular, its 1950 in the report proved International Status of South West Africa on the legal status of South West Africa given minority opinion, which the Court about two decades later in the 1971 emitted opinion Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia connected.

Alejandro Álvarez died in Paris in 1960 at the age of 92.

Act

Legal philosophical views

Léon Bourgeois, a representative of the French school of solidarism, which influenced Alejandro Álvarez's legal theory

Based on the philosophy of law by Alejandro Álvarez was the socio-historically oriented view that the law is inextricably linked with its political and social environment, and that changes in this environment would have an impact on the right. As an expression of the social condition, to which he also included the legal awareness, he saw public opinion, which for him was of the highest importance for the development of law. Various events and developments since the middle of the 19th century, such as industrialization and the emergence of international trade , the spread of new means of communication and the two world wars, he attributed a role in the development of a new international legal awareness.

He was critical of positions of natural law within international law, since in his opinion their proponents believe in the universal validity of all international law principles and thus neither adequately consider the development of international law nor explain the emergence of different coexisting variations. On the other hand, he did not represent rigid legal positivism , but rather a positivist position based on the ideas of the French philosopher Auguste Comte , according to which international law results from the practice of state action. Due to his education and his life in France, his legal theory was also influenced by the school of solidarism , which had a significant impact on the ideological foundations of the Third French Republic and, among others, by Louis Renault, Léon Bourgeois and Antoine Pillet as well as in the field of international law Georges Scelle was represented.

Life's work

The work of Alejandro Álvarez, who initially mainly represented pan-American and later also internationalist positions, is considered to have shaped the development of international law in the first half of the 20th century and the development of a specifically Latin American consciousness in this area. In the course of his life he published more than 100 writings which, in addition to international law and international relations, particularly concerned private law, legal theory and the history of diplomacy . At the time he settled in Europe, he saw international law in a state of crisis, since, in his view, education in this area of ​​law had turned away from the reality of international relations and was instead oriented towards a narrow and formal perspective, which in the opinion of Alejandro Álvarez, was connected with civil law. In the 1920s, he tried to reason as part of its activities in the American Institute of International Law is a codification of his ideas of international law to implement this way triggered by the First World War political and social upheavals in a further development of the international legal system which would reflect the reality of the international order.

In doing so, he initially concentrated on the development of an "American international law" for the countries of Latin America and the United States, both in the area of ​​interstate law and private international law . He saw its foundations in common legal sources and principles that would result from the common history as well as the common action of these countries in certain situations and the customs resulting therefrom. His considerations in this regard, in which he tried to combine the traditions of the Anglo-Saxon legal system of the USA with the legal practice in Latin American countries that goes back to the Romance-European legal conceptions, he formulated for the first time in an article which he wrote in 1909 under the title “Latin America and International Law ”published in the American Journal of International Law . Based on this position, he represented the point of view of a Latin American identity in international law and the importance of regional variability in this area of ​​law until the end of his life. In his opinion, however, the development of a specific Latin American international law concept also resulted in important contributions to general international law. In addition, he saw a divergence in international law at the regional level not in contradiction to the idea of ​​a universal community of states. His theory of regional particularism in international law was only noticed and discussed by foreign lawyers after his election to the International Court of Justice.

Alejandro Álvarez already emphasized in his earlier works, but especially in his later writings, the importance of international organizations for the world order and the consideration of social considerations and individual human rights in a renewal of the international legal order. So already the 1916 distributed by him text "Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations" contained a section entitled "International Rights of the Individual" to the individual rights regardless of nationality , origin , gender or religion for everyone should apply in every country. Alejandro Álvarez therefore claimed for himself that he was the first to have spread the idea of ​​human rights as part of international law internationally. In particular after 1945 he propagated a new understanding of international law and criticized the widespread view that international society was merely a collection of independent states and that regulating their relationships was the sole task of international law. Rather, he emphasized the need for states to play a responsible role in building a stable international community. During his time as a judge at the International Court of Justice, he used separate opinions in the decisions of the court to develop his positions and to emphasize the role of the court in law-making. With regard to the emergence of a large number of new states after the Second World War as a result of the aspirations for independence, particularly in Africa and Asia , he supported a broad application of the principles of non-interference and non-aggression.

Awards and recognition

Alejandro Álvarez, who is considered one of the most renowned international lawyers in Latin America in the 20th century, was a member of the Institut de Droit international from 1913 , of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas Spain from 1922 and of the Institut de France from 1923 . In addition, from 1929 he was an honorary member of the International Law Association and the Paneuropean Union . In 1959, in recognition of his services to his homeland, he was appointed ambassador for life. The Universidad de Buenos Aires (1941), the University of Strasbourg (1947) and the Universidad de Chile (1958) awarded him an honorary doctorate . In 1932, 1933 and 1934 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. The trade magazine "Leiden Journal of International Law" published in 2006 in the fourth edition of the 19th year a series of articles about his life and work. In the town of Ovalle in the Chilean region of Coquimbo , a school has been named after him since 1960.

Works (selection)

• Une Nouvelle Conception des études Juridiques et de la Codification du Droit Civil. Paris 1904
• American Problems in International Law. New York 1909
• Le droit international Americain. Paris 1910
• The Monroe Doctrine. Its Importance in the International Life of the States of the New World. New York 1924
• Le droit international nouveau dans ses reports avec la vie actuelle des peuples. Paris 1959

literature

• Alan T. Leonhard: Alvarez, Alejandro. In: Warren F. Kuehl (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists. Greenwood Press, Westport 1983, ISBN 0-31-322129-4 , pp. 14/15
• Alejandro Alvarez. In: Arthur Eyffinger, Arthur Witteveen, Mohammed Bedjaoui : La Cour internationale de Justice 1946–1996. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague and London 1999, ISBN 9-04-110468-2 , p. 262
• Manfred Lachs : The Teacher in International Law: Teachings and Teaching. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague 1982, ISBN 90-247-2566-6 , pp. 87/88
• Álvarez, Alejandro. In: G. Pope Atkins: Encyclopedia of the Inter-American System. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 1997, ISBN 0-31-328600-0 , pp. 19-21
• International Solidarity ... almost: Alvarez and Politis. In: Martti Koskenniemi : The Gentle Civilizer of Nations. The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-52-154809-8 , pp. 302-309

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} All information on life and work, unless otherwise noted, from Warren F. Kuehl, Westport 1983 (see literature)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Arnulf Becker Lorca: Alejandro Álvarez Situated: Subaltern Modernities and Modernisms that Subvert. In: Leiden Journal of International Law. 19/2006. Cambridge Journals, pp. 879-930, ISSN  0922-1565
3. ↑ James Brown Scott : The Election of Judges for the Permanent Court of International Justice. In: The American Journal of International Law . 15 (4) / 1921, American Society of International Law , pp. 556-558, ISSN  0002-9300
4. ↑ Verena Schöberl: "There is a great and wonderful country that does not know itself ... It's called Europe": The discussion about the pan-European idea in Germany, France and Great Britain 1922-1933. Series: Socio-political series of publications by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Volume 2. LIT Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 3-82-581104-2 , p. 290
5. ^ Klaus Jürgen Müller, Ernst Willi Hansen, Gerhard Schreiber, Bernd Wegner: Political change, organized violence and national security: Contributions to the recent history of Germany and France. Series: Contributions to military and war history. Volume 50. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-48-656063-8 , p. 91
6. ↑ In: Martti Koskenniemi , Cambridge 2004, p. 304 (see literature)
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Liliana Obregón: Noted for Dissent: The International Life of Alejandro Álvarez. In: Leiden Journal of International Law. 19/2006. Cambridge Journals, pp. 983-1016, ISSN  0922-1565
8. ^ ^{A b} Katharina Zobel: Judge Alejandro Álvarez at the International Court of Justice (1946–1955): His Theory of a 'New International Law' and Judicial Lawmaking. In: Leiden Journal of International Law. 19/2006. Cambridge Journals, pp. 1017-1040, ISSN  0922-1565
9. ^ ^{A b} Howard N. Meyer: The World Court in Action: Judging among the Nations. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD 2002, ISBN 0-74-250924-9 , pp. 93/94
10. ^ Ijaz Hussain: Dissenting and Separate Opinions at the World Court. Series: Legal Aspects of International Organization. Volume 3. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht and Boston 1984, ISBN 9-02-472920-3 , p. 64
11. ^ ^{A b} William Samore: The New International Law of Alejandro Alvarez. In: American Journal of International Law . 52 (1) / 1958. American Society of International Law, pp. 41-54, ISSN  0002-9300
12. ^ ^{A b c d} Carl Landauer: A Latin American in Paris: Alejandro Álvarez's Le droit international américain. In: Leiden Journal of International Law. 19/2006. Cambridge Journals, pp. 957-981, ISSN  0922-1565
13. ^ Hubert Thierry: The Thought of Georges Scelle. In: European Journal of International Law . 1/1990. Oxford University Press & European Society of International Law, pp. 193-209, ISSN  0938-5428
14. ↑ ^{a b} In: Martti Koskenniemi , Cambridge 2004, p. 302 (see literature)
15. ^ ^{A b} Jorge L. Esquirol: Alejandro Álvarez's Latin American Law: A Question of Identity. In: Leiden Journal of International Law. 19/2006. Cambridge Journals, pp. 931-956, ISSN  0922-1565
16. ^ Liliana Obregón: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Latin America. In: Maryland Journal of International Law. 24/2009. Francis King Carey School of Law of the University of Maryland, pp. 94-98, ISSN  2151-2922
17. ^ Nobelprize.org: Nomination Database (accessed November 11, 2011)
18. ↑ Liceo Alejandro Álvarez Jofré - Origen del Nombre (Spanish, with picture; accessed February 13, 2018).

This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 20, 2011 in this version .