SCLOPIS di SALERANO, PAOLO FEDERICO. – Italian statesman and jurist, born on 10 January 1798 in Turin, died there on 8 March 1878.
After obtaining a degree in law, he entered the judiciary. Although liberal in sentiment, he was nevertheless opposed to secret societies and to the overthrow of the established order by violence; as a supporter of reforms, he placed his trust in the sovereign’s discretion for their implementation. He therefore did not take part in the uprisings of 1831. After Carlo Alberto ascended the throne, in June 1831 he became a member of the commission charged with preparing the reform of Sardinian legislation and, in particular, with drafting the new civil code. At the same time, he served on the commission for the study of a new law on literary property. The appointment to these posts was due to his reputation as an able jurist, demonstrated by his Storia dell'antica legislazione del Piemonte, published in 1833. Alongside several historical writings, during this period he published the four discourses Della legislazione civile (1835), the edition of the Statuti di Torino (1838), his 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 work Della autorità giudiziaria (1842), and 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 toward the conclusion of a new Concordat with the Holy See, which would by mutual agreement eliminate the jurisdictional privileges of the Piedmontese clergy; but his thinking was distorted by the marquis D. Pareto, then Sardinian minister in Rome, who gave the proposal a peremptory tone, causing the Holy See to adopt a more rigid position: negotiations did not even begin. He entered the Senate on 10 June 1849 (and later also served as its president from May 1863 to October 1864), where he spoke, particularly on questions concerning relations between Church and State. He opposed the suppression of religious Orders and 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 undertake a mission to Rome if Pius IX agreed to official negotiations for the cession of the Legations. He did not approve the Convention of September 1864 and from then onward withdrew from public life. In 1871 he presided over the international arbitral tribunal that settled the Alabama dispute between the United States and England.