Konstantinos Raktivan

Konstantinos Raktivan (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Ρακτιβάν; 1865 – 21 May 1935) was a Greek jurist and politician, who served as cabinet minister, as the de facto first Governor-General of Macedonia, president of the Athens Bar Association and of the Council of State, Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament and member and president of the Academy of Athens.

Konstantinos Raktivan was born in 1865 at Manchester, where his father Demetrios Raktivan (naturalized in Britain as Ractivand), a merchant from Veroia, was active in business. His mother, Maria Ismiridou, hailed from Constantinople.

The young Raktivan studied Law at the University of Athens, and began his practice as a lawyer in 1885, the same year as he published his first legal study. After a brief service as judge in Syros in 1888–89, he resigned from the Judicial Corps to focus on his career as a lawyer. He exercised this profession for 25 years (1885–1912), and was distinguished for his ability and integrity. Raktivan also became a driving force behind the foundation of the Athens Bar Association in 1909, of which he was elected as the first Vice President, and subsequently President for three consecutive years in 1910–12.

The Goudi coup of 1909 and the subsequent entry of Eleftherios Venizelos in Greek public life marked a decisive turning-point in Raktivan's life, as he soon became one of the Cretan politician's closest collaborators. Elected to the Hellenic Parliament representing Attica in the November 1910 elections, he played a leading role in the drafting of the new Greek Constitution of 1911. Raktivan was re-elected in the March 1912 and May 1915 elections. In 1912 he became Minister of Justice under Venizelos as Prime Minister, a development which also marked the definitive end of his career as a lawyer. He remained Justice Minister until the cabinet's resignation on 25 February 1915.

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