- Person
- Tobias Asser
- Lived
- 1838–1913
- Field
- International law
- From
- Dutch
The story
Tobias Asser was born in Amsterdam in 1838 into a Jewish family of lawyers; his great-grandfather Moses Solomon Asser had been a leader in winning civic equality for Dutch Jews, and his great-uncle Carel was one of the first Jews to practise law in Holland. Asser became a professor of law in Amsterdam and specialised in private international law, the rules that decide which country’s laws and courts apply when families and businesses cross borders.
In the nineteenth century every state answered those questions differently, so a marriage valid in one country might be void in another, and court papers or judgments might count for nothing abroad. Asser believed governments should agree on common rules. He persuaded the Dutch government to invite the states of Europe to The Hague, and in 1893 delegates from thirteen states met at his initiative and elected him president. Under his leadership the conferences of 1893 and 1894 produced a treaty on civil procedure that took effect in 1899, and those of 1900 and 1904 produced conventions on marriage, divorce, separation and the guardianship of children.
His conferences grew into the Hague Conference on Private International Law, a permanent intergovernmental organisation since 1955, with 94 member states and the European Union. Its 1980 Child Abduction Convention, with 103 contracting parties, secures the prompt return of children wrongfully taken across borders. Its 1993 Intercountry Adoption Convention, with 107 parties, protects children in international adoption. Its 1961 Apostille Convention, with 130 parties, lets public documents be recognised abroad with a single certificate. Other conventions help families collect child support across borders and courts serve papers and gather evidence abroad.
Asser also helped create the Permanent Court of Arbitration and sat on its first case in 1902. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911 and died in 1913. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, he served on the board of the Dutch Israelite Seminary from 1882 to 1887 and broke with Judaism around 1890.
Why it matters
Every year, parents recover abducted children, adoptive families are protected and millions of documents are recognised abroad under conventions descended from the conference Tobias Asser called in 1893.
About Tobias Asser
Dutch Jewish-born lawyer who founded the Hague Conference on Private International Law, whose treaties still return abducted children and settle cross-border family cases. Nobel 1911.
Sources
- About HCCH Hague Conference on Private International Law
- Status table: 1980 Child Abduction Convention Hague Conference on Private International Law
- Tobias Asser, Biographical NobelPrize.org
- Asser Encyclopaedia Judaica via Encyclopedia.com
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.