Today, Universitat de València is paying tribute to Rafael Altamira, Valencian jurist and historian who died in exile, in Mexico, in 1951. This event is organized by the Office of the Principal and the Facultat de Dret. It is beginning at 12:30 at Facultat de Dret’s Salón de Grados. Pilar Altamira, his granddaughter, is attending the ceremony. At Gregori Maians Social Sciences Library, an exhibition is going to be opened as well on this occasion.
Several exponents are attending the event: the Principal, Esteban Morcillo, the Dean of Facultat de Dret, María Elena Olmos, the Vice-principal for Communications and Institutional Relations, Silvia Barona, and the full professor Mariano Peset. This one is in charge of praising Altamira.
Rafael Altamira (Alicante, 1866 – Mexico, 1951), studied law at Universitat de València, where he meet figures like Vicente Blasco Ibáñez or the full professor Eduardo Soler. This last one introduced him to Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Bartolomé Cossío, Joaquín costa and other regenerationists.
He moved to Madrid in 1886, where he was head of the daily La Justicia, belonging to the republican party Partido Republicano Centralista. He was linked to the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, an academic private independent institution, which marked his ideas, educational concerns and ethical attitude forever.
In 1897, he became full university professor of law history in Oviedo, where he met Clarín, among others. In 1898, he supported the university extension as a defined area within the university. His goal was spreading the university knowledge to people who could not access to higher education through conferences, courses and activities alike.
He was appointed professor at Instituto Diplomático y Consular, which was the precedent of the current Escuela Diplomática in 1914. That same year, he became full university professor of history of political and civil institutions of America at Universidad Central de Madrid.
In 1916, he was appointed senator by Universitat de València in the list of Partido Liberal, which was headed by the Earl of Romanones. In 1919, he was appointed arbitrator for the Mining Disputes Court in Paris, and in 1920 he was chosen one of the members of the Jurists Committee in charge of writing the draft of the International Court of Justice. One year later, in 1921, he was appointed one of the tenured jurists in it.
The Spanish Civil War made him go into exile to different countries. In 1951, he was one of the Nobel Peace Prize candidate, but he died the 1st of June of that same year in Mexico.
Last update: 20 de june de 2012 08:54.
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