Sclopis di Salerano, Paolo Federico

SCLOPIS di SALERANO, PAOLO FEDERICO. - Italian politician and jurist, b. January 10, 1798 in Turin, d. there March 8, 1878.

Having obtained a degree in jurisprudence, he entered the magistracy. Of liberal sentiments, he was nevertheless opposed to secret societies and to the overthrow of the established order by violence; and, a supporter of reforms, he trusted in the sovereign's discretion for their implementation. He therefore did not take part in the uprisings of 1831. After Charles Albert ascended the throne, he was in June 1831 a member of the commission to prepare the reform of Sardinian legislation and in particular to draft the new civil code. At the same time he was part of the commission for the study of a new law on literary property. The conferral of these assignments was due to his reputation as a valiant jurist, of which he had given proof with his Storia dell'antica legislazione del Piemonte, published in 1833. Alongside various writings of a historical character, he published in that period the four discourses Della legislazione civile (1835), the edition of the Statuti di Torino (1838), the reply to Portalis's criticisms of the new Sardinian code (Remarques sur le nouveau code civil pour les Etats de S. M. Sarde, Paris 1838), the writing Della autorità giudiziaria (1842), the Storia della legislazione italiana (1844). After the proclamation of the Statute he was Minister of Grace and Justice in the Balbo ministry and worked for the conclusion of a new Concordat with the Holy See, which would eliminate by common agreement the jurisdictional privileges of the Piedmontese clergy, but his intention was misrepresented by the Marquis D. Pareto, then Sardinian minister in Rome, who gave the proposal a peremptory tone, causing a stiffening on the part of the Holy See: the negotiations did not even begin. He entered the Senate on June 10, 1849 (he was later also its president from May 1863 to Oct. 1864), and spoke there, in particular on questions concerning relations between State and Church. He was opposed to the suppression of the religious Orders and to the introduction of civil marriage. In 1859-60 he did not share Cavour's ambiguous policy toward the Holy See, but declared himself ready to go on a mission to Rome, should Pius IX consent to official negotiations for the cession of the Legations. He did not approve the Convention of Sept. 1864 and from then on withdrew from public life. In 1871 he presided over the International Court of Arbitration that closed the Alabama controversy between the United States and England.

Silvio Furlani