Antonio Sánchez De Bustamante Y Sirven
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Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven (13 April 1865 – 24 August 1951) was a Cuban lawyer, educator, politician and international jurist. He promoted the existence of a common American regulation for
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."Conflict of Laws", ''Black's Law Dictio ...
. For this reason, the sixth Pan-American Congress took place in Cuba in 1928, in the final document, the Treaty of Havana is attached in the annex of the Code of Private International Law. He was appointed in 1908 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 ...
of
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and in 1921 he was appointed judge of the
Permanent Court of International Justice The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, existed from 1922 to 1946. It was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1920 (although the idea of an international court was several cent ...
established by the
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. He was also the first president of the National Academy of Arts and Letters of Cuba.


Life and career


Early life and education

Antonio Sanchez de Bustamante was born in
Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
on 13 April 1865. Bustamante married Isabel Pulido Pages, the daughter of a prominent Havana physician, in 1885. They had three sons, Gustavo and Antonio Arturo Sánchez de Bustamante Pulido, both prominent attorneys, and a third son, Dario, who died while still a law student. One of Bustamante's grandsons, Antonio Sanchez de Bustamante Montoro, was also a lawyer and a professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Havana. Bustamante's law firm was located at Calle Aguacate #502 in Old Havana since 1884. For almost a century represented powerful business interests in Cuba. He completed his elementary and secondary studies in Colegio de Belén of the Society of Jesus in Havana, and in the Instituto Cardenal Cisneros in Madrid. His father, Juan Manuel Sánchez de Bustamante y García del Barrio, was a physician in Havana and professor of descriptive anatomy at the
University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...
. Bustamante started his studies of law at the Central University of Madrid while his father served as
senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
in the Spanish
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. Bustamante returned to Cuba and completed his degree of licentiate of civil and canon law at the University of Havana in 1884. A year later he completed a doctoral dissertation about the historical evolution of the
Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...
at the University of Havana.


Law professor

Bustamante competed for and obtained the chair of Public and Private International Law of the University of Havana in 1891. He held that chair until his June 1951, confirmed by the U.S. Governor in 1899 and by the Cuban Republic after 1902.


Politician

He served in the Cuban Senate representing in different terms the provinces of
Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 191,081 (2022), it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños''. History Pinar del Río was ...
and
Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Havana Bar Association. From that position he organized the first National Legal Conference in December 1916. The conference was designed to promote the revision and update of the entire legal system, replacing the Spanish laws by modern legislation that responded to Cuban realities.


National and international academies

Bustamante was the first president of the National Academy of Arts and Letters established by the Cuban republic in 1910. He was also one of the founding members of the Cuban Academy of the Spanish Language. From 1942 until his death in 1951 he was the President of it. Bustamante was also the founder and president of the Cuban Association of International Law, and founder, vice-president and President of the International Academy of International and Comparative Law of The Hague.


Constitutional Convention of 1928

In 1928, he presided over the Constitutional Convention that amended the Constitution of 1901 and permitted President Gerardo Machado to serve a second term in office without elections. Although the political opposition to Machado and to the constitutional reform of 1928 was limited before 1930, after Machado was overthrown in August 1933, Bustamante was subject to a political trial by revolutionary
tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a singl ...
organized by university students and stripped of his chair in the Havana Law School. In 1936, he was reinstated to it.


International work

He was the foremost Cuban authority on
international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...
through his death. Bustamante participated as Cuban delegated in the II Peace Conference of The Hague in 1907, and a year later was appointed judge of the Arbitration Court of The Hague. In 1919, he was the Cuban diplomatic representative to the Peace Conference in Paris. In 1921, he was elected by the League of Nations as judge to the Permanent Court of International Justice, and reelected in 1930 for a second term that must have expired in 1942. Bustamante was one of the founders, vice-president, and later president of the Academy of International and Comparative Law of The Hague in 1923. He authored of the Code of Private International Law, Bustamante Code, approved by most Latin American states in the VI International Conference of Havana (1928), which he presided. For his code, President Gerardo Machado granted him the Cross of the National Order of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the highest decoration of the Cuban republic. Bustamante was awarded honorary doctorates in La Sorbonne, Columbia University, and the Universidad de San Marcos de Lima among others. Bustamante presided over and participated in the II and III International Congress of Comparative Law held in 1935 and 1937. He was nominated in 1949 by Nefali Ponce, the
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of
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for the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
.


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * ''Anuario Social de La Habana 1939'', (Luz-Hilo, S.A.) * ''New York Times''; Dr. de Bustamante, Noted Jurist, Dead; 26 August 1951, Page 77. * ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
''; Milestones; 3 September 1951. * ''Time''; The League of Nations: Mutt & Jeff, Queen Bee; 29 September 1930. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez De Bustamante Y Sirven, Antonio 1865 births 1951 deaths Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences Permanent Court of International Justice judges Cuban judges of international courts and tribunals Conflict of laws scholars 19th-century Cuban lawyers