Edouard Descamps - Belgian Apostle of Peace through Law

The Belgian jurist Edouard Descamps (1847-1933) or "Baron Descamps" was an extraordinarily multifaceted figure. Descamps was a professor at KU Leuven for more than sixty years, was active in the first constitutional revision as a Belgian senator, had an important role in the legal formation of the controversial Congo Free State and argued at the very first arbitration organised at the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The diversity of his activities at both national and international levels and his many writings on the various topics he was involved in during his long career thus seem an interesting ground for a biography. Since the relationships between the different fields in which he was active as a professor, politician and international lawyer did not always seem clear in the existing literature, it was necessary to conduct further research on this figure. This article focuses on the role of Descamps as an international lawyer. The various fields in which he was active each, in their own way, inflicted on him an ever-growing interest in international law. The major works he subsequently published at the turn of the century and his role in the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Permanent Court of International Justice are explained in further detail.