Ludovic Trarieux

Ludovic Trarieux (30 November 1840 in Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, Charente – 13 March 1904) was a French Republican statesman, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.

Ludovic Trarieux was born on 30 November 1840 in Aubeterre (Charente). He was called to the Bar of Bordeaux in 1862 and practiced there until 1881. He was elected President of the Bar in 1877, at the age of thirty-seven and became a member of the local republican party.

On 6 April 1879 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and became a member of the Opportunist Republicans, where he was quickly noticed, making numerous interventions in debates. Nevertheless, his stay in power was short-lived. He approved the bill on the liberty of higher education, while supporting various amendments. He also voted for the invalidation of the election of Auguste Blanqui and against the plenary amnesty on cases concerning The Paris Commune. In the debate on the status of professional trade unions (that was finally voted in 1884), he intervened to seek guarantees.

Beaten in the new elections in 1881, he was called to the Parisian bar and pursued his political career there.

He was elected Senator of the Gironde on 5 January 1888, then re-elected in 1897, remaining in the post until his death. As a member of the Republican Left and soon President of the group of the Moderate Left (the most moderate in the High Assembly), at first he adopted some very conservative positions in cases on social laws (modification of article 1780 concerning service contracts, arbitration between employers and employees, the work of women and juveniles) and, in his report, rejected the bill of modification of the law on professional trade unions.

He distinguished himself, especially in 1893 and 1894, as the reporter on the voting of three of the four laws aimed at the repression of anarchist attacks (the famous "lois scélérates"). However, he fought energetically against an amendment that aimed to transfer infringements concerning the detention of explosives to the War Council, which had become more repressive, since it had refused to allow the removal of common law jurisdiction from these courts. In the same vein, on 28 May 1897, he pushed for the voting of the law that put an end to secret investigations in the absence of a lawyer, and fought for the institution of a system of competing experts in criminal matters, comparable to the adversarial system. In 1889, he was chosen by his peers of the Senate to become a member of the Commission of the Nine, in charge of the instruction of the lawsuit against General Boulanger.

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