Tobias Asser
Tobias Michael Carel Asser ( born April 28, 1838 in Amsterdam, † July 29, 1913 in The Hague) was a Dutch lawyer and politician. He distinguished himself particularly in the field of international civil law and was awarded 1911 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.
Life
Tobias Asser came from a wealthy Dutch Jewish family of lawyers, his father and grandfather practiced as lawyers, an uncle was Minister of Justice. He studied law at the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam, from 1876, the University of Amsterdam was built, and a doctorate here in 1860. During the same year he became a member of an international commission that negotiated the elimination of tariffs on the Rhine. After practicing for a short time as a lawyer, he taught from 1862 Civil Law at the Athenaeum in Amsterdam. Having trained at the School, the University of Amsterdam was created, he was Professor of International Law and Business Law until 1893.
In Dutch politics, he worked as a legal adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1893 as a member of the State Council and from 1904 until his death as a minister without portfolio from 1875. He worked throughout his career, in particular with the international civil rights, where he campaigned for a far-reaching international standardization.
Together with the Englishman John Westlake and Belgian Gustave Rolin - Jaequemyns he founded the end of 1868, first published in Revue de Droit International et de Legislation Comparee (Journal of Comparative and International Law ), which is the first academic journal in the field of international law concerned. In September 1873 he was one of the 11 lawyers in the Belgian city of Ghent by the Institut de Droit international ( Institute of International Law ) founded, an institution, the 1904 Nobel Peace Prize. In 1898 he directed the taking place in The Hague 18th meeting of the Institute.
With the support of the Dutch government Tobias Asser organized 1893-1904 a number of international conferences in The Hague, which were attended by representatives of most European countries. There was the first time to conclude international agreements on the harmonization of conduct of civil litigation and family law. In the years 1899 and 1907 Tobias Asser Dutch delegate was at the Hague Peace Conferences, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which he was also at the first hearing in 1902.
1904, the honorary title of Minister of State, he was awarded. The American Society of International Law in 1910 appointed him an honorary member. A year later he got together with Alfred Hermann Fried Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements in the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In addition, he was honored by several universities with an honorary doctorate, including the University of Edinburgh, the University of Cambridge, the University of Bologna and the Humboldt University in Berlin.
His niece was the pacifist Hetta Countess Treuberg (born Kaufmann- Asser ).
Works (selection)
- Schets van het internationaal privaatregt. Haarlem 1879; German edition: Private international law. Weidmann, Berlin 1880
- Studies op het gebied van right state. Haarlem 1889
- La codification du droit international privé. Haarlem 1901
- La Convention de la Haye du 14 novembre 1896. Bohn, Harlem 1901
- Legal Aspects of Regulatory Treatment of Banks in Distress. Renouf Pub, 2001, ISBN 1-55775-972-3