Rafael Altamira y Crevea

Rafael Altamira y Crevea [ rafael altamiɾa i kɾeβe.a ] ( born February 10, 1866 in Alicante, † June 1, 1951 in Mexico City) was a Spanish jurist and historian. He was professor of legal history at the Universities of Oviedo, Madrid and Mexico City, and worked as a judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice 1921-1946.

Life

Rafael Altamira was born in 1866 in Alicante and studied from 1882 in Valencia. Five years later he completed his studies with a doctorate at the University of Madrid. In 1895 he founded under the title " Revista Critica de Historia y Literatura Españolas, Portuguesas y Hispano Americanas " the first literary and cultural magazine of its kind in Spain. From 1897 he was professor of legal history at the University of Oviedo and from 1914 at the University of Madrid.

From 1921 to 1946 he was a judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice. In addition to the Italians and the Cubans Dionisio Anzilotti Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven placing it among the three judges who were members of the Court from its founding until dissolved. Even before the emergence of the Court, he was a member of the Commission, which drew up the Statute.

With the beginning of the Spanish Civil War he went into exile, first in the Netherlands to The Hague, then to Bayonne in France and 1945 in Mexico, where he became Professor of Legal History at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in the same year. He died in 1951 in Mexico City.

Scientific work

Rafael Altamira stressed in his writings the importance of cultural history in the historiography and tried to establish an internationalist and humanist embossed understanding of history. Among his most outstanding works included the four volumes published in 1900-1911 "Historia de España y de la Civilización Española " the history of Spain and the 1903 published "Historia del Derecho Español " to the Spanish legal history.

Awards

Rafael Altamira was from 1909 and corresponding starting in 1911 a full member of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Politicas and from 1922 a member of the Real Academia de la Historia. In addition, he was taken up in 1927 by the Institut de Droit International in 1908-1951 and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Works (selection)

• Historia de España y de la Civilización Española. Four volumes. Barcelona 1900-1911
• Historia del Derecho Español. Madrid 1903
• España en América. Valencia 1908
• Manual de Historia de España. Madrid 1934
• Tierras y Hombres de Asturias. Mexico City 1949