Drago, Louis Maria

Born into a wealthy family of Spanish descent. He graduated from the National College of Buenos Aires, then - the law faculty of the University of Buenos Aires (1882). He worked as a journalist in several newspapers, including The Nation, becoming its editor. Then he transferred to the civil service: he was a judge, adviser to the provincial appellate court and attorney general of Buenos Aires. During his service in court, he showed a deep interest in studying the sociological and psychological factors that influence the behavior of offenders.

In 1888, Mr .. joined the group of researchers of the so-called "Generation of the 1880s", who took up the scientific study of crime. This group of scholars became the founders of the positivist school of criminal law in Argentina based on the then prevailing Italian school of legal positivism. In 1909 he was appointed arbiter to resolve the financial dispute between the United States and Venezuela, then participated in the resolution of the conflict between Great Britain and the United States over fisheries in the North Atlantic.

In 1901 he was elected a deputy from the National Party of Autonomists and at the same time was a professor of law.

From 1902 to 1903 - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina in the presidential administration, Julio Rocky . He was later a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Represented Argentina during the Second Hague Peace Conference (1907). After the end of World War I, he was invited by the newly formed League of Nations to take part in the development of the Statute of the Permanent Court of the International Court of Justice.

He was known for developing the Drago Doctrine called in his honor, which establishes that foreign states are not entitled to carry out diplomatic and military sanctions against the debtor country in order to collect debts or interest on the debt. It was a Latin American evolution of the Monroe Doctrine formulated by US President James Monroe and was a response to military operations in England, Germany and Italy, which carried out the naval blockade of Venezuela (1902-1903), after the president of this country, Cipriano Castro, refused to pay state duty to them. At the same time, the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, refused to apply the Monroe Doctrine to European states.

In 1912, he was re-elected to the Federal Congress and during this year, citing health conditions, resigned as ambassador to the United States of America.

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