Georges Sauser-Hall (September 26, 1884 – March 12, 1966) was a Swiss scholar of international and comparative law. He was a professor in Neuchâtel, Geneva, and Istanbul, headed the legal service of the

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA, , , , ), so named since 1979, is one of the seven Departments of the Swiss government federal administration of Switzerland, and corresponds in its range of tasks to the ministry of foreign affa ...

in Bern, and was a member of the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides administrative support in international ...

in The Hague.

Early life and education

Georges Sauser-Hall was born Jean Georges Sauser, son of the merchant and watchmaker Georges Frédéric Sauser and Marie-Louise Dorner. He was the older brother of the writer

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars (), was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European ...

. He married Agnès Hall in 1908. As a young man, Sauser-Hall studied law, earning his licentiate in 1906 and becoming a lawyer in 1908. In 1910, Sauser-Hall earned a

doctor of law A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

degree from the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

. His thesis was on the subject of "Belligerents interned in neutral countries in the event of a land war".

Career

Following his doctoral studies, Sauser-Hall was appointed

privat-docent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

(1911), then Professor of Comparative Law (1912) at the

University of Neuchâtel The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is a French-speaking public research university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The university has four faculties (schools) and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, ...

. From 1915 to 1924, he was deputy and then head of the legal department of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern. In 1924 he returned to teaching as Professor of Civil, Comparative and International Private Law at the University of Geneva, where he remained until 1954. From 1925 to 1931, he was also a legal advisor to the Turkish government and taught civil law at

Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...

. In 1934, Sauser-Hall was asked by a Swedish court to give an opinion on the effect of the U.S.

Executive Order 6102 Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding (economics), hoarding of gold coin, gold bar, gold bullion, and Gold certificate (United States), gold certificat ...

on a European contract that provided for payment in gold dollars from a U.S. bank. In 1937, he reworked this opinion into a course which he delivered at

The Hague Academy of International Law The Hague Academy of International Law () 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 taught in English and French and, except for External ...

on the subject of clauses in public and private contracts requiring payment in gold. In 1946, Switzerland appointed him as a member of the

in The Hague, and on several occasions he was asked to defend Switzerland before the International Court of Justice. He also chaired the arbitration tribunal set up in the Aramco arbitration between Saudi Arabia and Aramco in 1958, as well as the Italian-United States Conciliation Commission created by under the 1947 peace treaty between Italy and the Allies. From 1954, he was also a lecturer at the universities of Neuchâtel and Lausanne. From 1957 to 1959, he was President of the Institut de Droit International. He authored numerous legal works as well as a handbook on Swiss civics for foreigners, , which reached its seventh edition in 1965. In 1952, a volume of essays was published in his honor. Sauser-Hall retired at the age of 70 in 1954 and died March 12, 1966 in Geneva.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sauser-Hall, Georges 1884 births 1966 deaths People from La Chaux-de-Fonds Swiss legal scholars Scholars of comparative law International law scholars Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Members of the Institut de Droit International Academic staff of the University of Neuchâtel Academic staff of the University of Geneva University of Geneva alumni