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, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the a ...

. In 1911, he won 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 ...

(together with Alfred Fried) for his role in the establishment 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 ...

at the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899 and for his achievements in 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 ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, the Netherlands, in a Jewish family. 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, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

and

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

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. He also co-founded the Institut de Droit International in 1873. In 1880 he became a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

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

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 ...

. 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

. 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 Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...

of his time.

The Hague Peace Conferences

He was a delegate of the Netherlands to both Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907, where he urged the principle of compulsory arbitration be introduced in the economic area and contributed to the creation of the

as the first global mechanism for the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

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

, which was established as a result of the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 (the

Pious Fund of the Californias The Pious Fund of the Californias () is an endowment, originating in 1696, to sponsor the Roman Catholic Jesuit Spanish missions in Baja California, Dominican missions in upper Baja California, and Franciscan Spanish missions in California, Spa ...

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. 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 Supranational union, supranational Law, laws operating within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). It has grown over time since the 1952 founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, to promote ...

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 ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, Netherlands.

References

External links

Tobias Michael Carel Asser
biography in the

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

* {{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 Dutch 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 Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Dutch judges of international courts and tribunals