Rallis, Georgio Alessandro

RALLIS, GEORGIO ALESSANDRO. - Jurist and politician, b. in Constantinople in 1804. He completed his higher studies in Vienna and Paris, where he was also a teacher of rhetoric. Having returned to Greece, he was entrusted by his government with certain political missions to Thebes and Athens.

He was twice rector of the University of the latter (1858, 1868) and held the chair of law. He also presided over the government ministries of Justice (1841, 1848, 1857), of Economy (1841) and of Foreign Affairs (1848).With his appointment as director of the Areopagus (1850), his career as a teacher of law began anew, and in it he continued, with some interruptions, until his death (1883), which came upon him in Austria.

Many were his ordinances, and various the juridical bodies born in Greece while he directed the Ministry of Justice, and very many were his valued publications: for example, the Enchiridion of Roman law (Athens 1856), a work of his youth, and the more mature one on the bill on mendicancy (ibid. 1878-79). In collaboration with Potlis M. he published Greek Codes (in Greek, ibid. 1844) with many later editions, and the work of the two, Ordinatio sacrorum canonum Ecclesiae orthodoxiae orientalis (in Greek, ibid. 1852-56), has remained classic.

Emmanuel Candal