Pontes de Miranda

Francisco Cavalcanti Pontes de Miranda
A photograph of Miranda, circa 1940
Born	(1892-04-23)23 April 1892 Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil
Died	22 December 1979(1979-12-22) (aged 87) Rio de Janeiro City, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Occupation	Lawyer, jurist, professor, diplomat, essayist
Nationality	Brazilian
Ethnicity	White
Alma mater	Faculdade de Direito do Recife

Francisco Cavalcanti Pontes de Miranda (April 23, 1892 – December 22, 1979) was a prominent Brazilian jurist, judge, diplomat and professor of Law at the Federal University of Pernambuco. He occupied the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1979, until his death.

He is best known for the extent of his works, which covers several areas of knowledge, including Law, Sociology, Philosophy, Politics and Mathematics, and were published in Portuguese, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

Pontes de Miranda was born in Maceió and studied in Recife, receiving his diploma in Law in 1911. He got married twice; in 1914, to Maria Beatriz Cavalcanti Pontes de Miranda; and in 1952, to Cardilli Pontes de Miranda; five children would result from these two marriages.

After beginning his career as a lawyer, Pontes de Miranda become a judge in 1924. In 1939, he left the Court of Appeal in which he presided, to become the Brazilian ambassador in Colombia.

Pontes de Miranda was also a professor. He taught law at the Hague Academy of International Law in 1932 and received honorary degrees from several Brazilian major universities.