Lidia Poet

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Lidia Poët (born August 26, 1855 in Perrero , Piedmont , † February 2, 1949 in Diano Marina ) was the first graduate of a law degree in Italy. The fact that she also became the first defense attorney before an Italian court was prevented by the annulment of her admission to the State and Bar, which was a blatant infraction of the law.

She was only licensed to practice as a lawyer in court 37 years later, after the requirement for consent had been removed from Italian law by her husband for legal transactions involving her wives.

Her parents were the wealthy Waldensian landowners Marianna Richard and Giovanni Pietro Poët.

She was born after four brothers and three sisters as the last child in Traverse, a district of Perrero in the Valle Germanasca , and moved to Pinerolo after her childhood in Traverse with her brother Enrico Poët, a lawyer . In the small Piedmontese town she obtained her high school diploma . Then she was sent by her family to Aubonne VD on Lake Geneva to learn German and English.

Vocational preparation

From 1878 she studied law at the University of Turin and received her doctorate on June 17, 1881 with a dissertation on the state of women in society, in particular on issues of women's suffrage. From 1881 to 1883 she attended the "forensic practice" ( internship ) in Pinerolo in the office of attorney Senator Cesare Bertea and assisted in court proceedings.

During this time she came into contact with various personalities from literature and politics, including Edmondo De Amicis , Paolo Boselli and Cesare Cantù .

On May 15 and 16, 1883, she submitted to the theoretical and practical examination of the Turin State and Bar Association and applied for registration in the Bar Association. The request aroused controversy as it was the first case of its kind in the Kingdom of Italy . On August 1, 1883, she submitted her application to the State and Bar Association.

In the debate on the motion, Chiaves, a former interior minister, stated his opposition to the motion

“Che si disse contrario all'iscrizione in quanto l'avvocatura era da considerarsi us funzione pubblica; ammettere le donne all'avvocatura era ridicolo e non opportuno proprio in omaggio ai “principi che ci governano”.

- Admitting translation of women to the legal profession is ridiculous and inappropriate as a dedication to the "principles that govern us". : Desiderato Chiaves (October 2, 1825 in Turin ; † June 29, 1895 in ibid.) Was an Italian poet, journalist, politician and musician, senator of the kingdom and lawyer.

Federico Spantigati, a member of the Sinistra storica, agreed:

"Nessuna legge ha mai pensato di distogliere le donne da quelle ordinarie occupazioni domestiche che loro sono proprie."

- Translation No law has ever thought of distracting women from their normal homework. : Author Federico Spantigati (born April 1, 1831 in Alexandria , † October 30, 1884 in Turin) studied law; Lawyer.

were other opponents

  1. Carlo Giuseppe Isnardi
  2. Giovanni Curioni (December 8, 1831 Invorio; † February 1, 1887 in Turin),

Chairman Francesco Saverio Vegezzi said that "according to Italian civil law, women are citizens like men and thus spoke out in favor of Lidia Poët. The majority of the Council of State and Bar Association (eight out of twelve councils) voted in favor by Lidia Poët in the Turin Bar Association, and among its supporters is the chamber chairman

  1. Francesco Saverio Vegezzi.
  2. Giuseppe Bruno (born November 30, 1830 in Nicosia, † March 9, 1904 in Catania ) lawyer - doctor
  3. Carlo Giordano
  4. Paolo Massa
  5. Gustavo Pasquali
  6. Belluomini Ranieri
  7. Gaetano Re
  8. Tommaso Villa (January 29, 1832 Canale, Cuneo; † January 24, 1915 in Turin)

Spantigati and Chiaves resigned from the bar in protest. The case went to justice. The King's Attorney General at the Court of Appeal of Turin, Vincenzo Calenda di Tavani , denied the due diligence of the registration and agreed to his objection, believing that the title and exercise of the right as a lawyer for the woman for the only but essential reason title and legal practice cannot be legally adopted by women "(an argument that was obviously not based on logic, but on a mere tautology). The appeals court accepted the prosecutor's application and on November 11, 1883 overturned the decision of the Council, thereby preventing Lidia Poët from practicing her legal profession, Lidia Poët did not give up and appealed to the Turin Court of Cassation on November 28, 1883, naming women's advocates in other states, such as Clara Shortridge Foltz in the United States.

However, on April 18, 1884, the latter confirmed the judgment of the court of appeal.

Phantom debate

There was no law banning women from the legal profession. There was continued perversion of the law which kept Lidia Poët away from this office.

Ferdinando Santoni-De Sio, a Roman lawyer, had a leaflet printed out in which he presented the arguments of those who opposed the admission of women to legal professions.

Women are forbidden by law and ordinance in the Milizia Togata: to enter. The appellate court found that the admission of Ms. Poët was illegal.

“La donna andava esclusa dalla“ milizia togata ”per ragioni“ d'educazione, di studi, d'inversatilità ordinaria negli affari, di non integra responsabilità giuridica e morale ”, per la sua“ indole ”,“ fisica cagionevolezza di lei, la diuturna indivisibilità della sua persona dall'eventuale portato delle sue viscere, ed in generale parlando, la deficienza in essa di adeguate forze intellettuali e morali, fermezza, costanza, serietà »."

- Translation : The woman should be excluded from the "Togata militia" for reasons: "From education, from studies, from ordinary inversatility in the economy, from the non-integration of legal and moral responsibility", from its "nature", "from their physical neglect, the daily indivisibility of their person from the possible consequences of their viscera and, in general, the lack of adequate intellectual and moral strength, firmness, constancy, seriousness ".

The negative argument tries to justify why women are excluded from civil service (militia togata).

In the debate, the attorney general's apologists adopted the argument that the lawyer is a civil service one of them: Carlo Francesco Gabba , Alberto Marghieri and Adolfo Sacerdoti . Lidia Poët's advocates, lawyers who, like Emilia Mariani , Domenico Giuriati , Ercole Vidari and Luigi Landolfi, stressed that lawyer was a liberal profession.

Lidia Poët decided to devote herself to defending the rights of women, the marginalized, minors and prisoners.

In 1884 Jacob Moleschott gave a speech to the Senate in favor of Lidia Poët.

Approval by the husband for legal transactions

The Civil Code of March 21, 1804 stipulated a requirement for consent by the husband in legal transactions in Articles 215 to 228. The Italian legislators took over these "autorizzazione maritale" in the Codice Civile of 1865 in Articles 134 to 137. The Code Civil Article 217 resp. 134 of the Codice Civile of 1865 was also applied to employment contracts. These articles codified an inferiority achieved in feudalism through structural violence of married women in relation to their legal person for the age of capitalism.

On July 17, 1919, Act 1176 came into force on the initiative of Ettore Sacchi (* May 31, 1851 Cremona ; † April 6, 1924 in Rome), which removed the need for approval by the husband for legal transactions from the Code Civile of Italy .

International Penitentiary Commission

1885 was the intercession of the widow of the publisher Giuseppe Pomba , Luisa Pacchiotti Pomba - (Sanremo, 1825 1900 Torino) for the 3rd Congress of the International Penitentiary Commission delegates in Rome. In 1890 she was a delegate at the fourth International Congress of Prisons in Saint Petersburg . As a member of the International Penitentiary Commission , she represented Italy in various parts of the world as Vice President of the Legal Department.

Next life

In 1885 the French government appointed her Officier d'Académie and officially invited her to Paris, where she met Paul Verlaine , Victor Hugo and Guy de Maupassant . During the First World War she was a nurse for the Italian Red Cross and was awarded the silver medal for civil service.

In 1920, at the age of 65, she was admitted to the bar without hesitation.

In 1922 she became president of the Comitato pro voto donne (women's electoral committee) founded in Turin in 1906 .

Publications

  • Studio sulla condizione della donna rispetto al diritto costituzionale e al diritto amministrativo nelle elezioni. Dissertazione per la laurea in giurisprudenza, Chiantore & Mascarelli, Pinerolo 1881.
  • Ricorso all'Eccellentissima Corte di Cassazione in Torino della signorina Lidia Poët laureata in leggi contro la decisione dell'Eccelentissima Corte d'Appello in data 14/11/1883. Stamperia dell'Unione Tipografica Editrice, Turin 1883.
  • Report présenté par M.lle Lydia Poët, docteur en droit à Pignerol (Italy). Congrés pénitentiaire international de Saint-Pétersbourg. Travaux Prèparatoires, 1890.
  • Conferenza della sig.na Lidia Poët, dottoressa in giurisprudenza. Tipografia Il Risorgimento, Turin 1914.
  • Assistence morale et legale des mineurs en Italie. in: Atti del Congresso Internazionale Femminile, Roma, 16-23 maggio 1914. Torre Pellice 1915.

literature

  • Ferdinand Santoni de Sio: La Donna e l'Avvocatura. Rome 1884.
  • Montgomery H. Throop: Woman and the Legal Profession. In: Albany Law Journal (Dec. 13, 1884), pp. 464-67.
  • Frank Malvina: Lidia Poët e l'avvocatura. In “La donna”, Bologna, April 1st, 1885.
  • Clara Bounous: La toga negata: da Lidia Poët all'attuale realtà torinese: il cammino delle donne nelle professioni giuridiche. Alzani, Pinerolo 1997.
  • James C. Albisetti: Portia ante portas. Women and the Legal Profession in Europe, ca.1870-1925. In: Journal of Social History (Summer, 2000). link
  • Francesca Tacchi: Eva togata: Donne e professioni giuridiche in Italia dall'Unità a oggi. UTET, Turin 2010, ISBN 978-88-02-08138-0 . PDF

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In a treatise on commercial law, Johannes Gryphiander differentiates between civil service in uniform (militia armata) and civil service in civilian clothes (militia togata), the latter being made up of the liberal arts.
  2. ↑ Code Civil Article 217 p. 202 217. La Femme, même non commune ou séparée de biens, ne peut doner, aliéner, hypothéquer, acquérir à titré gratuit ou onéreux, sans le concours du mari dans l'acte, ou son consentement par écrit. P. 203 217 Even a wife living outside the community of property or in separate goods (with her husband) cannot give away, sell, mortgage, nor acquire anything in any way free of charge or through an onerous contract, unless the husband does the legitimate business himself or has given his consent in writing. (2) (Art, 1554, 1576) cf. published by Christian Daniel Erhard, Napoleons I Emperor of the French ... Civil Code, p. 106 p. 107

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia: Lidia Poët. In: studivaldesi.org. Retrieved January 17, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ LES FEMMES DOCTEURS AU XVIIP SIÈCLE, Ne pourrait-on établir, à l'aide du nouveau Courrier du Figaro, une liste complète des femmes reçues docteurs au dixhuitième siècle? GM, La jurisprudence eut à se prononcer sur l'admissibilité des femmes aux fonctions d'avocat, spécialement en Italie et en Belgique. Les deux cas les plus curieux sont celui de Lidia Poët (1883), docteur en droit de l'Université de Turin, et de Mlle Popelin (1888), licenciée en droit, qui se présenta à la Cour de Bruxelles pour prêter le serment d 'avocat. [1] [2]
  3. ↑ Fredebeul & Koenen, Social revue: Journal for the Social Issues of the Present, 1901, p. 69
  4. ↑ Giulia Merlo, March 5, 2017, Lidia Poët, la prima avvocata a chiedere l'iscrizione all'albo, [3]
  5. ↑ DOTTORANDA: Alice Abena Storia del diritto medievale e moderno. 2006 - 2010 CICLO XXII, [4]
  6. ↑ [5] ; La Corte d'Appello rigetta a motivo della [6]
  7. ↑ edited by Ulrike Schultz, Gisela Shaw, Women in the World's Legal Professions, p. 429 ff.
  8. ↑ p. 429 ff.
  9. ↑ Laura Meneghello, Jacob Moleschott - A Transnational Biography: Science, Politics, and, Popularziaton in Nineteenth-Century Europe, p. 230
  10. ↑ Alfonso Sica, Ossi duri: memoria storica & immaginazione, p. 30
personal data
SURNAME Poet, Lidia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Poet, Lydia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian lawyer, first lawyer in Italy
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Perrero , Piedmont
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1949
Place of death Diano Marina