Tobias Michael Carel Asser (; 28 April 1838 – 29 July 1913) was a Dutch lawyer and

legal scholar Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. In 1911, he won the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

(together with

Alfred Fried Alfred Hermann Fried (; 11 November 1864 – 4 May 1921) was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, journalist, co-founder of the German peace movement, and winner (with Tobias Asser) of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911. Fried was also a supporter ...

) for his work in the field of

private international law Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction. This body of law deals with three broad t ...

, and in particular for his achievements establishing the

Hague Conference on Private International Law The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) is an intergovernmental organisation in the area of private international law (also known as ''conflict of laws''), that administers several international conventions, protocols and soft ...

(HCCH).

Life

Tobias Michael Carel Asser was born on 28 April 1838 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He was the son of Carel Daniel Asser (1813–1885) and grandson of Carel Asser (1780–1836). He studied law at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

and Leiden University and was a law professor at the University of Amsterdam. Asser co-founded the ''Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparée'' with John Westlake and

Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns Gustave Henri Ange Hippolyte Rolin-Jaequemyns (31 January 1835 – 9 January 1902) was a Belgian lawyer, diplomat and Minister of the Interior (1878–1884) as a member of the Unitarian Liberal Party. Together with the Swiss jurist Gustave Moyni ...

. He also co-founded the

Institut de Droit International The Institute of International Law (French: Institut de Droit International) is an organization devoted to the study and development of international law, whose membership comprises the world's leading public international lawyers. The organizati ...

in 1873. In 1880 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law

Asser was a leading legal mind in the area of private international law and firmly believed that sound legal frameworks that govern private cross-border relationships would promote peace and stability. In 1893, Asser initiated the convocation of the First Diplomatic Session of the HCCH, the preeminent global organisation in the area of

. The participating States were Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland. Asser was elected the Session's President, and subsequently re-elected at the Second to Fourth Session which took place in 1894, 1900 and 1904 respectively. Under his leadership, the HCCH developed some multilateral treaties, the Hague Conventions, that unified the rules of private international law in the areas o
Marriage (1902)Divorce (1902)Guardianship (1902)Civil Procedure (1905)Effects of Marriage (1905)
an
Deprivation of Civil Rights (1905)
In 1911, Asser received the

Nobel Prize for Peace The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

. In his Award Ceremony Speech on 10 December 1911, Chairman of the Nobel Committee Jørgen Gunnarsson Løvland emphasised specifically Asser's work in the field of private international law, and his achievements in establishing the HCCH, as reasons for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, describing Asser as "a successor to or reviver of The Netherlands' pioneer work in international law in the seventeenth century", the Hugo Grotius of his time.

The Hague Peace Conferences

He was a delegate of the Netherlands to both Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration

In 1902, he sat on the first arbitration panel to hear an international controversy brought by two states under the auspice of the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that aris ...

, which was established as a result of the

Hague Peace Conference The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amo ...

of 1899 (the

Pious Fund of the Californias The Pious Fund of the Californias ( es, Fondo Piadoso de las Californias) is a fund, originating in 1697, to sponsor the Roman Catholic Jesuit Spanish missions in Baja California, and Franciscan Spanish missions in Alta California in the Vic ...

Case). He also took a hand in the establishment of what would become

The Hague Academy of International Law The Hague Academy of International Law (french: Académie de droit international de La Haye) is a center for high-level education in both public and private international law housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Courses are taugh ...

, though he did not live to see its foundation in 1923. Asser died on 29 July 1913 in The Hague.

Namesake

A research institute in the fields of Private and Public International Law,

European Law European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...

and International Commercial Arbitration is named after Tobias Michael Carel Asser. This is the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, based in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, Netherlands.

References

External links

Tobias Michael Carel Asser
biography in the Jewish Encyclopedia * {{DEFAULTSORT:Asser, Tobias 1838 births 1913 deaths Nobel Peace Prize laureates Dutch Nobel laureates 19th-century Dutch lawyers 20th-century Dutch lawyers Dutch Jews Dutch legal scholars The Hague Academy of International Law people Asser, T.M.C. Jewish scientists Leiden University alumni Members of the Institut de Droit International Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences Lawyers from Amsterdam University of Amsterdam alumni University of Amsterdam faculty Dutch judges of international courts and tribunals