SCLOPIS DI SALERANO, PAOLO FEDERICO

After obtaining his degree in law, he entered the judiciary. Of liberal sentiments, he was nevertheless opposed to secret societies and to the overthrow of the established order by violence; as an advocate of reforms, he trusted in the discretion of the sovereign for their implementation. He therefore did not participate in the uprisings of 1821. After Charles Albert ascended the throne, in June 1831 he was 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 conferment of such positions was due to his reputation as an eminent jurist, which he had demonstrated with his Storia dell'antica legislazione del Piemonte, published in 1833. Alongside various historical writings, he published in that period the four discourses Della legislazione civile (1835), the edition of the Statutes of Turin (1838), the reply to the criticisms of the new Sardinian code by Portalu (Remarques sur le nouveau code civil pour les Etats de S. M. Sarde, Paris 1838), the treatise Della autorità giudiziaria (1842), and the Storia della legislazione italiana (1844). After the proclamation of the Statute, he served as Minister of Grace and Justice in the Balbo government and worked towards the conclusion of a new Concordat with the Holy See, which would jointly eliminate the jurisdictional privileges of the Piedmontese clergy; however, his proposal was distorted by the Marquis D. Pareto, then Sardinian minister in Rome, who gave it a peremptory tone, causing the Holy See to harden its stance: negotiations never even began. He entered the Senate on 10 June 1849 (and later served as its president from May 1863 to October 1864), where he spoke out, particularly on issues concerning Church-State relations. 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 consented to official negotiations for the cession of the Legations. He disapproved of the September 1864 Convention and from then on withdrew from public life. In 1871, he presided over the international arbitral tribunal that resolved the Alabama dispute between the United States and England.