Former French Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals. He joined the Paris Bar in 1951 and practiced law until 1981. He acted as defense attorney in the most important death penalty causes. In 1966, he was appointed Professor of Law including at the University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. French Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals (1981-1986), he brought to the Parliament the law for the abolition of death penalty. He was President of the Constitutional Council (1986-1995). He is the main inspirer and promoter of the Stockholm Convention of 1992, creating the “Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in the O.S.C.E.”, of which he was president until September 2013. In 1995, he was elected to the French Senate and reelected in 2004. In 2003, he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to be part of the Panel in charge of working on a report of the UN entitled “A more secure world: our shared responsibility” (2005). He is the author of many books and writer of an opera libretto. He is member of the International commission against the death penalty.
For a reasonably open world
