Dionisio Anzilotti

Dionisio Anzilotti ( born February 20, 1867 in Pescia; † August 23, 1950 ) was an Italian lawyer, who scored in the first half of the 20th century 's leading experts in international law and in this region one of the most well-known legal scholar in the history of his homeland had. He worked from 1921 to 1946 as a judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice ( StIGH ) and was one of three judges, who belonged to the court of its creation until dissolved. In addition, he was in 1923 with his dissenting minority opinion in the Wimbledon case, the only judge in the history of StIGH who voted against the position of his home country in a decision.

Life

Dionisio Anzilotti was born in 1867 in the Italian province of Pistoia. He graduated in Law, from which he graduated in 1890 with a thesis in the field of private international law. He then worked as an attorney in Florence, where until 1902 he also taught civil law and private international law at the Royal Institute of Social Sciences from 1892. After that, he was Professor of International Law and taught from 1902 to 1903 at the University of Palermo, and from 1904 to 1911 at the University of Bologna, before he moved to the University of Rome, where he worked until his retirement in 1937. Parallel to his academic work, he was a member of a Committee on Legal Issues ( Consiglio Contentious Diplomatic ) the Italian Foreign Ministry. In this role, he was legal adviser to the Ministry in several cases before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which he became a member in 1916. Three years later he was a member of the delegation of his native country at the Paris Peace Conference, 1920, he was Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs of the newly founded League of Nations. In this role, he was responsible for, among other things, along with other legal experts drafting the legal bases of the Permanent Court of International Justice ( StIGH ).

After the entry into force of the Statute StIGH in September 1921 was elected on the newly created Court judge Dionisio Anzilotti of the committees of the League of Nations, which he headed as president from 1928 until the end of his first term in 1930. In the same year he was re-elected for another nine years. During this time he was involved in all cases with those of StIGH was involved. Since the measures provided for judges in 1939 elections due to the start of the Second World War did not take place, he remained as the other active at this time on StIGH judge formally until the dissolution of the Court in April 1946 in the Official. The activities of the StIGH came to a halt in 1940, however. In addition to the Spaniard Rafael Altamira y Crevea and the Cubans Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven he was thereby one of three judges who were members of the Permanent Court of International Justice from its creation to its dissolution and the establishment of the International Court of Justice as its successor institution. He died in 1950 in his native town of Pescia.

Legal, Philosophical views

The most famous work of Dionisio Anzilotti is his 1905 published book " II diritto internazionale nei Giudizi interni ," in which he dealt with the relationship between international law and national laws. In this regard, he advocated going back to the German jurist Heinrich Triepel perspective of a dualism between the two areas of law, which he expressed during his entire ministry in various statements and publications. According to this view, which characterized by the influence of Dionisio Anzilotti from the mid-1920s, the decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice, is the international law independently and separately from the domestic law of each country. To justify this position, he argued that the international law of national legal norms with regard to the origin and objectives and in terms of scope and scope as well as legal entities concerned would clearly distinguished.

As fundamental contributions to the development of international law, its publications, in particular his 1902 published book " Teoria generale della responsabilità dello Stato nel diritto intemazionale " apply beyond the field of international responsibility. It differed in this respect, as opposed to later authors, no degrees with respect to the severity of violations of international law. In addition, international responsibility would be limited in his view, only to violations of contracts between two or more specified States and thus do not extend to obligations to the community as a whole. This position resulted from his point of view that only the will of sovereign states is the basis of international obligations. In addition, an international responsibility would only be possible for government activities, but not for the actions of individual people in his view.

Dionisio Anzilotti saw dissenting opinions in the decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice not as critical of the decision of the court majority, but only as a representation of the opinions of the author and its underlying rationale. As in the opinion of most of his colleagues, his dissent to the beginning of his term were shorter than in his later years on the Court. Although he was considered a legal positivist, he tried in 1937 with his remarks in the case Lighthouses in Crete and Samos, the natural law concept of fairness, ie, the assessment of a case pursuant to the natural sense of justice to include in his argument with. With regard to the interpretation of international treaties, he represented in several decisions of the opinion that they were faithfully interpreted in their context, unless this would not lead to illogical or absurd conclusions.

Awards

Dionisio Anzilotti was an associate from 1908 and from 1921 a full member of the Institut de Droit International, as its vice president, he worked from 1932 to 1934. He was also recorded in 1926 in the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 1928 and an honorary member of the American Society of International Law, and was from 1936 foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and from 1938, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Works (selection)

• La filosofia del diritto e la sociologia. Firenze 1892
• Studi di critici diritto internazionale. Rocca San Casciano 1898
• Teoria della generate RESPONSABILITA dello Stato nel diritto intemazionale. Firenze 1902
• II diritto intemazionale nei Giudizi interni. Bologna 1905