Nobel Peace Prize winner René Samuel Cassin died on this day 36 years ago. His legal career, which began in 1909, was interrupted by the First World War. He became a professor of law at Aix in 1916 after being wounded in the war, and he subsequently held professorships at Lille and the University of Paris. From 1944 to 1960 he was vice-president of the Council of State, France’s highest court for administrative law.
Cassin took a strong interest in humanitarian law and organisations, acting as founder and president of the French Federation of Disabled War Veterans, vice-president of the High Council for Wards of the Nation, and founder and reporter of the International Conference of Associations of Disabled War Veterans. He was a French delegate to the League of Nations between 1924 and 1938, and he attended the Disarmament Conference. During the Second World War he joined General de Gaulle’s government in exile and drafted all of the legal texts of that government.
Between 1950 and 1960 Cassin was president of the Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and in 1959 he became a member, and in 1965 the president, of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg. In 1968, at the age of 81, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the field of human rights.
One reply on “René Cassin”
Great article. If you would like to know more about Monsieur René Cassin, or the work of the Foundation named in his honour, please visit us at http://www.renecassin.org. We will be hosting a young persons event on 29th February 2012: http://www.renecassin.org/events/current-events/details/26-young-friends-of-rene-cassin-party.html