23 Facts About Alfred Verdross

Alfred Verdross was a pan-German nationalist and an early sympathizer with Nazism, but did not join the Nazi party.

Alfred Verdross was an early proponent and chief theorist of the ius cogens doctrine and of the monist theory of the relationship between international and national law, and is considered one of the most influential international lawyers of the 20th century.

Alfred Verdross attended school in Rovereto and Brixen and then studied law at the universities of Vienna, Munich and Lausanne.

In 1916, Verdross passed the judges' examination and subsequently entered military service as first lieutenant auditor at the Supreme Military Court in Vienna.

Alfred Verdross habilitated at the University of Vienna in 1921.

Alfred Verdross was offered a position as Minister of Justice, but refused, although he was personally not hostile to the values of Austrofascism.

The exact extent of Alfred Verdross's sympathy for Nazism remains debated, and his relationship with the fascist government is a matter of controversy.

Alfred Verdross was an early sympathiser with Nazism and was active in DNSAP circles even after the party was outlawed in 1933.

Alfred Verdross was popular among German nationalist and Nazi students and often intervened on their behalf, but on one occasion he protected Jewish and democratic students from a Nazi attack at the university.

Alfred Verdross showed no qualms about contact with Nazism, but never joined the Nazi party either before or after the annexation of Austria into the German Reich in 1938.

Alfred Verdross was never allowed to resume the teaching of philosophy of law, probably because his natural law theory based on Christian values was deemed incompatible with the ideology of the regime.

Alfred Verdross managed to come to terms with the Nazi government and in 1942 was appointed alternate judge at the German Prize Court of Appeals and director of the Institute of Legal Sciences at the university of Vienna.

In 1959, Alfred Verdross became a judge of the newly created European Court of Human Rights, where he sat for two terms until 1977.

Alfred Verdross came to be regarded as one of the most authoritative international lawyers of the 20th century, not least because of the resurgence of natural law theory in post-war Austria and Germany: Alfred Verdross became one of the most celebrated protagonists in this revival.

Alfred Verdross died on 27 April 1980 in Innsbruck, the city where he was born.

Alongside Adolf Merkl and Josef Laurenz Kunz, Alfred Verdross was one of Hans Kelsen's most important pupils and a leading exponent of the Vienna school of legal theory.

Many of his contributions to the study of international law are based on Kelsen's theory of law and the state, which Alfred Verdross largely embraced, including the idea of the unity of law, the hierarchical structure of the legal system and the concept of basic norm.

Alfred Verdross rejected the prevailing theory of the time, Triepel's "dualism", according to which international and national law constitute two separate legal systems, based on different grounds of validity and addressed to different subjects.

Alfred Verdross's work had a strong influence on later theorization about the "constitutionalisation of international law".

Consequently, Alfred Verdross radically modified the Kelsenian theory of the basic norm.

Alfred Verdross believes that the social nature of human communities gives rise to objective values, and can therefore ascribe to the basic norm a substantive normative content, that of the fundamental principles of law, such as the safeguarding of human freedom, dignity and basic standards of inviolability.

Alfred Verdross is regarded as the founder and leading exponent of the Viennese School of international law and legal philosophy based on natural law theory.

Alongside his academic capacity, Alfred Verdross contributed to the development of international law as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in the early stages of this new system of international rights protection, and as a member of the International Law Commission.