Tobias Michael Carel *er (Dutch pronunciation: ; 28 April 1838 – 29 July 1913) was a Dutch lawyer and legal scholar.

In 1911, he won the Nobel Peace Prize (together with Alfred Fried) for his work in the field of private international law, and in particular for his achievements establishing the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).

Contents

• 1 Life
  • 1.1 The Hague Conference on Private International Law
  • 1.2 The Hague Peace Conferences
  • 1.3 The Permanent Court of Arbitration
• 2 Namesake
• 3 See also
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Life

Tobias Michael Carel *er was born on 28 April 1838 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was the son of Carel Daniel *er (1813–1885) and grandson of Carel *er (1780–1836). He studied law at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University and was a law professor at the University of Amsterdam.

*er co-founded the Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparée with John Westlake and Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns. He also co-founded the Ins*ut de Droit International in 1873. In 1880 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law

*er 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, *er initiated the convocation of the First Diplomatic Session of the HCCH, the preeminent global organisation in the area of private international law. The participating States were Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland. *er 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 of Marriage (1902), Divorce (1902), Guardianship (1902), Civil Procedure (1905), Effects of Marriage (1905), and Deprivation of Civil Rights (1905).

In 1911, *er received the Nobel Prize for Peace. In his Award Ceremony Speech on 10 December 1911, Chairman of the Nobel Committee Jørgen Gunnarsson Løvland emphasised specifically *er'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 *er 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, which was established as a result of the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 (the Pious Fund of the Californias Case). He also took a hand in the establishment of what would become The Hague Academy of International Law, though he did not live to see its foundation in 1923.

*er died on 29 July 1913 in The Hague.

Namesake

A research ins*ute in the fields of Private and Public International Law, European Law and International Commercial Arbitration is named after Tobias Michael Carel *er. This is the T.M.C. *er Ins*uut, based in The Hague, Netherlands.

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

References

External links

• Tobias Michael Carel *er, biography in the Jewish Encyclopedia
• Tobias *er on Nobelprize.org