TRIBUTE TO ANTIGONO DONATI

Please remain seated, just as if Antigono Donati were still here among us with his strong and clear voice, with his concreteness in outlining problems and his synthetic approach in converting ideas into fast and effective action. This feature of his personality was compounded with his marked internationalist vocation: a man of Italian birth but the expression of a European-wide legal culture, open to stimuli coming from all over the world. Thanks to his sharp sensitivity, he in fact perceived the fact that insurance law is part of the ius mercatorum which has for centuries driven the need for security in international trade and the need for individual security beyond territorial boundaries. Thanks to his internationalist vocation and to his unique capacity of translating ideas into concrete action, he was a major promoter of AIDA, an international association that assembles the insurance law experts of Europe and of the world. It was not by chance that out of all the most eminent European insurance law experts who founded the AIDA in Luxembourg in 1960, Antigono Donati was appointed the first Co-Chairman of the Association and, only two years later, organised the first World Conference on Insurance Law that was held in Rome in 1962 where he was nominated for and confirmed in the capacity of International Chairman for a term of office that lasted twelve years, from 1962 to 1974. The first 14 years of the Association's life thrived on the decisive impulse given by Donati in developing the AIDA throughout the world, through the continuous sequence of World Conferences every four years, the Pan-American conferences and the international work groups.

The first expression of Antigono Donati's vocation had already emerged when, being only 24 years old, he founded the Rivista Assicurazioni (Insurance Review), of which he was Chief Editor up to his death and that has always remained open to the contribution of foreign jurists and economists and also to the developments attained by Insurance Law and Economics. Later, at 42, between 1952 and 1956, he began publishing his three-volume Trattato del diritto delle assicurazioni private (Treatise on the Law of Private Insurance), which represents an open dialogue with European jurists and the acknowledgement of the international scope of insurance which leads to the need to perform comparative analyses in order to provide adequate positive law solutions. It is exactly this characteristic of the Treatise that makes it a transnational instrument of consultation for Insurance Law practicians around the world. To quote the words of the other Co-Chairman of AIDA, Hans Möller, on awarding Donati the three volumes of Studies in his honour during the AIDA Paris Conference: "La grande oeuvre de Donati est toujours d'actualité".

His ideas and his actions spread over the world also through the different positions he held during his long and intense professional life: President of the OECD's Paris-based Comité de Cooperation Technique; President of the Italian Foreign Trade Institute; member of the Italian Constituent Assembly and member of Parliament; Chief Executive Officer of Banca del Lavoro and of Efibanca.

This makes it easy to understand the exceptional tribute that was paid to him by the topmost institutions worldwide and the great appreciation that was always expressed for the contribution he made to the legal culture. Proof of this are the awards that he was conferred internationally: Doctor honoris causa from the University of Hamburg; Honorary Professor in International Business at the University of Los Angeles; Honorary Professor in the University of Phoenix, Arizona; Honorary Professor in the Universidad Nacional de Mexico; member of the Insurance Hall of Fame; the Knight of the Great Cross of the Republic of Italy; the Knight of the Great Cross for civil merits from Spain; do Infante Don Henrique from Portugal; the Aztec Eagle from Mexico; the Rio Branco award from Brazil; the Lion from Finland; the Phoenix from Greece; the Sol from Peru; a decoration for civil merits from Egypt; Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from France; Grand Officer of the Order from Germany; the Oak Crown from Luxembourg; the Mayo award from Argentina and a decoration for civil merits from Chile.

We are truly proud to have had Antigono Donati amongst us for so many enjoyable years, first through his leadership and subsequently through his attentive participation as the de jure Chairman up to the very last moment before he passed away on the 5th of January 2002, when he was almost 92 years old.

His secret was his capacity to be so enthralling and involve others through his enthusiasm and to personally organise and look into all the details, even when they were apparently insignificant. In other words, he had the capacity to "think and dream big" and to know how to translate that dream into action. An eminent Italian philosopher of law (Capograssi) wrote: "L'azione è sorella del sogno" (acting is akin to dreaming). This was deeply true with Antigono Donati.


Back to 'News from the Presidential Council'