Doctor Alberico Gentili |
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Engraved portrait of Gentili
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Regius Professor of Civil Law | |
In office 1587–1608 (his death) |
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Monarch | Elizabeth I |
Preceded by | William Mowse |
Succeeded by | John Budden |
Personal details | |
Born |
Macerata, Italy |
14 January 1552
Died | 19 June 1608 London, England |
(aged 56)
Nationality | Italian |
Spouse(s) | Hester de Peigne |
Relations | Scipione Gentili (brother) |
Children | Roberto Gentili |
Parents | Dr Matteo Gentili Lucrezia Petrelli |
Alma mater | University of Perugia |
Known for | Substantial contributions to the theory of international law, human rights and war; First writer on public international law; Regius Professor |
Alberico Gentili (January 14, 1552 – June 19, 1608) was an Italian lawyer, jurist, and a former standing advocate to the Spanish Embassy in London, who served as the Regius professor of civil law at the University of Oxford for 21 years. Recognised as the founder of the science of international law, Gentili is perhaps one of the most influential people in legal education ever to have lived. He is one of the three men referred to as the "Father of international law". Gentili has been the earliest writer on public international law and the first person to split secularism from canon law and Roman Catholic theology. In 1587, he became the first non-English Regius Professor.
He wrote several books, which are recognized to be among the most essential for international legal doctrines, yet that also include theological and literary subjects. Legal scholars say that Gentili was the first who attempted to provide the world anything like a regular system of natural jurisprudence, and his treatise, On the Laws of War and Peace, with all its discolorations, is conceivably at the current day the most complete work on the subject.
It was occasioned by a case on which Gentili's counsel was sought. In 1584 Gentili and Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul were asked by the government to advise on the treatment of Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza, who had been implicated in the so-called Throckmorton plot against Queen Elizabeth I. As a result, Mendoza was expelled from England.