Luis Recasens facts for kids

Luis Pedro Alejandro Recasens Siches (born in Guatemala City in 1903 – died in 1977) was an important Spanish thinker. He was a legal philosopher, which means he studied the ideas behind laws. He was also a politician.

He taught at many universities in Spain, like Santiago, Salamanca, Valladolid, and Madrid. In the 1930s, he had big jobs in the Spanish government. After the Spanish Civil War, he moved to Mexico. There, he became a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and El Colegio de México.

Early Life and Education

Luis Pedro Alejandro Recaséns Siches was born in Guatemala City on June 19, 1903. His parents, Pedro Recaséns Girol and Concepción Siches Gils, were from Spain. When he was two, his family moved to Spain.

He went to primary school in Barcelona from 1908 to 1912. He then studied at the General and Technical Institute of Barcelona. In 1918, he earned his baccalaureate degree. He also studied at the University of Barcelona. In 1924, he earned degrees in both law and arts and philosophy.

From 1924 to 1925, he studied for his doctorate at the Central University of Madrid. His paper was about how Catholic ideas influenced legal philosophy. He focused on the work of Francisco Suárez. He also studied in Rome and Berlin on scholarships. He learned from famous thinkers like Giorgio del Vecchio and Rudolf Stammler. Later, he continued his studies in Vienna, learning from professors like Hans Kelsen.

His Ideas on Law

Luis Recaséns Siches was a follower of the philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset. He believed that judges play a creative role. They take the general rules of law and apply them to real-life situations. These situations involve "the living and authentic man, with his strengths and weaknesses."

He thought that judges are even more important than lawmakers. He believed that laws should always be interpreted in a reasonable way. This helps make sure the law is fair for each person. He said that old ways of thinking about law were too focused on strict logic. He felt that human problems needed a "logic of reasonableness."

Recaséns Siches also thought about unfair laws under harsh governments. He strongly believed that such laws were not truly legitimate. Real laws, he wrote, must treat people with "dignity" and "freedom." If laws do not respect human dignity, they are not true legal rules. Instead, they are like training methods for animals.

Academic Career in Spain

In December 1927, he became a professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Santiago. In 1930, he became a full professor at the University of Salamanca. Soon after, he moved to the University of Valladolid, where he taught until 1931.

From April to October 1931, he worked for the Second Spanish Republic. He was the General Director of Local Administration. He also held important positions related to child protection and juvenile courts.

In April 1932, he became a professor at the Central University of Madrid. He taught there for several years, until February 1939. He also gave lectures at other universities and academies in Spain. In 1935, he attended an international conference on legal philosophy in Paris. He left Spain during the Spanish Civil War but kept his university title until 1939.

Political Activities in Spain

Luis Recaséns Siches was elected to the Spanish legislature. He served as a deputy from 1931 to 1933. He was supported by the Liberal Republican Right party. He was re-elected and served again from 1933 to 1935. He was allowed to teach at the university while he was a deputy.

He also worked as an attorney in Madrid from 1932 to 1936. In February 1936, he was appointed Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. He resigned from this role in September of the same year.

Time in France

In October 1936, he moved to France. There, he worked as an attorney and advisor for the Spanish Republic's Consulate General in Paris. He also worked with several legal and sociology institutes in Paris.

In May 1937, he received an invitation to teach at the National University of Mexico. He wrote to the Spanish Ministry of Public Instruction, showing his loyalty to the Republic. The Ministry allowed him to accept the offer. He traveled to Mexico, arriving in June 1937.

Life in Mexico

In Mexico, he taught at the National University of Mexico. He taught Philosophy of Law, General Theory of the State, and Sociology. He taught at the National School of Jurisprudence, the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and the National School of Economics.

In 1939, he became a member of the Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence. He also taught at the Hispano Mexicano Ruiz de Alarcón Institute. In 1945, he became a top-level professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He also directed the Seminar on Philosophy of Law and edited a legal journal. In 1954, he became a full-time researcher at the Institute of Philosophical Research.

Work in the United States

In 1948, he moved to the United States. From 1949 to 1954, he worked as a high official for the United Nations. He worked in the Human Rights and Social Welfare divisions. He was an expert in legal philosophy and helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

During these years, he also taught at several universities in the US. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York. He also taught at the New York City School of Law. In 1953, he was a visiting professor at the Tulane Law School in New Orleans.

Return to Mexico and International Travels

Recaséns Siches became a Mexican citizen on September 8, 1955.

He traveled a lot for his work. In 1964, he visited West Germany. He also taught and gave lectures in many countries. These included Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Texas. He was an honorary professor at several universities in Latin America.

From 1964 onwards, he also held visiting professorships in Spain. He taught at the University of Madrid, the University of Barcelona, and others.

In 1960, he led a seminar on sociology. He was also named an academician of the American Society for Legal and Political Philosophy. In 1964, he became a co-editor of an international sociology journal. In 1970, he was named Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Law at the National University of Mexico.

He attended many conferences in Mexico and other countries. He also wrote for professional journals in various countries.

Honors and Awards

Luis Recaséns Siches received the Mauricio Serrahima scholarship in 1922-1924. This scholarship was from the Bar Association of Barcelona.

In 1943, the University of San Carlos in Guatemala gave him an honorary doctorate. He was also made an Honorary Member of Guatemala’s El Derecho University Association that same year.

Memberships

He was a member of the Berlin Honor Society of Legal Philosophy in 1928, but he resigned in 1933. He was also a member of the Magistrate of the Provincial Court of Administrative Litigation in Valladolid from 1930-1931. From 1931 to 1936, he was an executive member of the Francisco de Vitoria Association in Madrid. In 1940, he became a corresponding member of the Argentine Institute of Legal and Social Philosophy.

He belonged to many other groups, including the Eastern Sociological Society (1949) and the American Sociological Association (1949). He was also part of the American Philosophical Association (1956). He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Lawyers in Mexico (1940).

From 1967, he was on the Steering Committee of the International Vereinigung für Rechtsphilosophie. He was also a member of the Governing Council of the Santander International Summer University (1934). He was president of the Philosophy section of the Ateneo de Madrid (1934-1936). He was also Vice President of the Institut International of Philosophie du Droit et Sociologie Juridique in Paris (1935-1940).

Selected Works

• El sistema filosófico-jurídico expuesto por Platón en su “República.” Barcelona, 1920.
• La filosofía del derecho de Francisco Suárez. Madrid, 1927.
• El actual viraje del socialismo germánico, Madrid, 1928.
• El sentimiento y la idea de lo justo. Psicologismo y objetivismo en la Filosofía del Derecho, Conferencia, Madrid, 1929.
• Estudios de Filosofía el Derecho Internacional. La unidad de la construcción jurídica y el primado del Derecho Internacional, Barcelona, 1930.
• El poder constituyente. Su teoría aplicada al momento español, Madrid, 1931.
• Las teorías políticas de Francisco de Vitoria. Con un estudio sobre el desarrollo de la idea del contrato social, Madrid, 1931.
• Los temas de la filosofía del Derecho. En perspectiva histórica y visión de futuro, Barcelona, 1934.
• Estudios de Filosofía del Derecho, Barcelona, 1936.
• Axiología jurídica: Bases para la estimativa jurídica, Havana, 1939.
• Vida humana, sociedad y derecho. Fundamentación de la Filosofía del Derecho, México, 1939.
• La Filosofía del Derecho en el siglo XX, Mexico City, 1941.
• Lecciones de sociología, Mexico City, 1948.
• Latin-American Legal Philosophy, with Carlos Cossio, Llambías de Azevedo, and Eduardo García Máynez, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948.
• Nueva filosofía de la interpretación del derecho, Mexico City, 1956.
• Tratado general de sociología, Mexico City, 1956.
• Tratado general de filosofía del derecho, Mexico City, 1959.
• Panorama del pensamiento jurídico en el siglo XX, Mexico City, 1963.
• El pensamiento jurídico anglosajón y el europeo, Madrid, 1965.
• Introducción al Estudio del Derecho, Mexico City, 1970.
• La naturaleza del pensamiento jurídico, Madrid, 1971.

Death

Luis Recaséns Siches passed away in Mexico City on July 4, 1977. He died from a heart attack and breathing problems. He is buried in the Pantheon Garden.

After he died, a Spanish lawyer named Joaquín Ruiz Giménez spoke about him. He said that Recaséns Siches believed strongly in human dignity and freedom. He also wanted a fair society where everyone had both freedom and equality.

Personal Life

Luis Recaséns Siches was very good with languages. He could speak French, English, German, and Italian.

He was married twice. His first marriage was to Juana María Casielles Pañeda, but they later divorced. On March 27, 1943, he married Martha Díaz de León Hernández in Mexico. They had two children: Sebastián, who died young, and Martha Luisa. Martha Luisa was born in Mexico City in 1944. She later married Dr. Pedro B. Crevenna Horney and had three children. After divorcing him, she married Arnoldo Martínez Verdugo, a Mexican politician.

See also

In Spanish: Luis Recasens para niños