René Capitant

René Marie Alphonse Charles Capitant (19 August 1901 in La Tronche, Isère – 23 May 1970 in Suresnes) was a French lawyer and politician.

He was the son of a lawyer, Henri Capitant, and attended the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. He received his Juris Doctor degree also in Paris.

In 1930, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Strasbourg and became a member of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an anti-fascist organization of intellecuals.

During World War II, he was involved in the creation of the resistance movement Combat in Clermont-Ferrand. He had to leave the country and became a law professor at the University of Algiers in 1941. After the Liberation, he became the Minister of Public Education in the provisional government.

From 1945 to 1951, he was a leftist Gaullist member of the National Assembly of France. In 1946, he founded, with Louis Vallon, the Union gaulliste.

After 1951, he was a law professor in Paris and was named director of the Franco-Japanese House in Tokyo from 1957 to 1960. He was then re-elected to the National Assembly from 1962 to 1968.

He served as the Minister of Justice (Garde des Sceaux) in the Georges Pompidou government from 1968 to 1969.

References

• French Wikipedia article on René Capitant