Tobias Asser
Dutch jurist who shared the 1911 Nobel Peace Prize for building the machinery of international law.
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via Wikipedia: Tobias Asser · see source
Tobias Michael Carel Asser (28 April 1838 – 29 July 1913) was a Dutch lawyer and legal scholar who believed that clear rules for cross-border private relationships would help keep the peace. He drove the creation of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) and helped set up the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899. For that work he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911, sharing it with Alfred Fried. A research institute in The Hague still carries his name.
Lore & Background
Asser was born in Amsterdam into a Jewish family, the son of Carel Daniel Asser. He studied law at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University and went on to teach law at Amsterdam. With John Westlake and Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns he co-founded the journal Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparée, and in 1873 he helped launch the Institut de Droit International.
He joined the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1880. In 1893 he convened the first diplomatic session of the HCCH, was chosen as its president, and was re-elected for the sessions of 1894, 1900 and 1904. The Netherlands sent him as a delegate to both Hague Peace Conferences, in 1899 and 1907.
Did You Know?
- At the 1911 prize ceremony he was likened to a Hugo Grotius of his time.
- He helped lay the groundwork for The Hague Academy of International Law but died before it opened in 1923.
- The T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague is named after him.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Tobias Asser (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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