GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ Y SANCHEZ

Cuban Lawyer, Jurist, Politician, Diplomat, Economist.


1895-1959

Speaker of the House, 1940 (portrait by Valderrama)

Jurist Politician Diplomat Economist

Professor of International Law, School of Law, University of Havana-1919-1934.
Secretary/treasurer-Cuban Society of International Law, 1920.
Legal Counsel to Secretary of State-1925-29
Delegate- VI American International Conference, 1928
Delegate/Technical Counsel-Conference on Conciliation and Arbitrage, Washington-1928
Secretary General-First Pan-American Conference of Municipalities, 1928
Delegate Plenapotentiary-Conference on Trademarks, Washington, 1929
Director of the International American Office for the Protection of Trademarks and Commerce, 1930.
Liberal Party - President-Havana province, 1930
Delegate-IV Pan-American Commercial Conference, Washington, 1931
Secretary of Justice, 1933
Member-House of Representatives, 1938-1942
Technical Advisor-Commission on Foreign Relations for the Senate, 1937
Technical Advisor-Commission for the Study of the New Constitution, 193?
President of the Foreign Relations Commission for the House of Representatives, 1939
Technical Director -Pan-American Commission for Intermuncipalities Cooperation, Chicago-1939
Delegate- VIII American Scientific Congress, Washington-1940
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1940-1941
Cuban delegation head and Sub-Committee President, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Atlantic City, 1943, 1944 and 1945.
G.A.T.T. Chairman Legal Drafting Committee and Tech. Dir., Cuban Delegation) Geneva-1947; (Head of Cuban Delegation) Geneva, Petropolis-1950, 1954.
Head of Cuban delegation, (GATT) Havana Charter, 1948.
President-Junta de Economia de Guerra, 1942.
President-Cuban Maritime Commission, 1942-43.
Ambassador to the United Nations (Security Council)1948.
President-Cuban Delegation, General Assembly, 1949
Technical Director/Secretary/President-National Junta of Economy (Junta Nacional de Economia) 1948-1953.
President-United Nations Economic Committee, 1951.
Minister of Finance (Ministro de Hacienda) 1953-1955.
Special Envoy-O.A.S. Conference of the Presidents, Panama, 1956.
President-Cuban Nuclear Energy Commission, 1956.
President-Ministerial Commission for Tariff Reform, 1958.
Minister of Economy (a.k.a. Ministro Presidente-Consejo Nacional de Economia/National Board of Economy, 1955-1959.

Legislator

(See blog entries Curriculum Vitae, October 2008 and Bibliography, June 2008)

Author

(See blog entries Curriculum Vitae, October 2008 and Bibliography, June 2008)

June 3, 2012

"Social" magazine 1925


In the September, 1925 issue of Conrado W. Massaguer's magazine "Social" he featured an article written by Gustavo Gutiérrez entitled "The need for a new world," (La necesidad de un mundo nuevo). Gutiérrez was 29 years old. As the title states Gutiérrez is concerned with the state of affairs in a world ravaged by a world war and the need for international law and justice  especially in a modern, interdependent and violent world where communication and connectivity has increased with the advent of international commerce, aviation and telecommunications.

He reminds us that war leads to more aggression and only through legal judicial means can civilization attempt to live in peace and harmony. If we were able to discover the New World behind a terrible cordon of fire and create a document in defense of "The Rights of Man and Citizen," destroying the divine rights of kings that the church protected, then why can't we learn to organize the world and thus, avoid wars? Just like Cro-Magnon man, the ancients of Rome or the Spaniard of King Phillip II were unable to envision the marvels of our modern society, we can not act in arrogance in relation to what our future may bring. Great men of every age have brought us glorious things, planted seeds of invention and ideals that grow and flower, repeating this cycle, stupendous and incessant. But for now the immediate problem is the question of peace. For if we abandon the harvest of illumined men for that of spilled blood and gold as a means for achieving harmony, we will once more hear the noise of war machines and witness yet again the formidable crashing of armies until that time when we can collect the fruits of our harvest, late perhaps, that we call international law, whose laborious gestation results so costly for the progress of humanity and civilization.

He quotes in his essay French philosopher Rousseau, Renault, Pillet, James Lorimer and English author of international public law, Lord Phillimore.