In Full Flower 307foreign minister in 1881– 85. In Argentina, Amancio Alcorta, an erstwhile
professor of international law at the University of Buenos Aires (and treatise
writer), served several stints as foreign minister in the period 1895– 1902.
(He is not to be confused with the later president of Argentina, of the same
surname.) In the United States, William Evarts, one of the most famous
lawyers in the country— with ser vice in international arbitration— served as
secretary of state in 1877– 81. Elihu Root, also a distinguished lawyer, was
secretary of state in 1905– 09—and (as noted earlier) the fi rst president of
the American Society of International Law.
Judicial ser vice was another outlet for the public spirit. Robert Philli-
more, the author of the fi rst comprehensive British treatise on international
law in the 1850s, served on the admiralty bench. Hefft er was a judge in
Germany. In the United States, James Kent, who did the fi rst systematic sur-
vey of international law in his country (as part of a larger discourse, rather
than as a stand- alone treatise), was a chancellor in the New York State courts
of equity, in addition to teaching law at Columbia University. Wheaton also
served in minor judicial posts, apart from his work as a Supreme Court re-
porter. Most appropriate for international lawyers was ser vice as interna-
tional arbitrators, as will be noted later.
Sometimes, international lawyers held po liti cal posts of varying degrees
of importance. Calvo, for example, served in the Argentine congress for a
time. Alberdi was instrumental in draft ing his country’s constitution of 1853,
in addition to serving in the Argentine congress. Alcorta served in that
country’s chamber of deputies, as well as holding cabinet posts in the fi elds of
government aff airs and the economy. Fiore was a member of the Italian sen-
ate. Rolin- Jaequemyns was minister of the interior in Belgium for six years
(in 1878– 84). In Germany, Liszt was a member of the Prus sian chamber of
deputies and of the imperial Reichstag, belonging to the Progressive People’s
Party. Westlake was briefl y a member of the British House of Commons (as a
Liberal), prior to taking up the Whewell professorship at Cambridge. His
pre de ces sor in that post, William Harcourt, was far better known as a prac-
ticing politician than as a legal scholar. He was a major fi gure in the British
Liberal Party, serving as home secretary and chancellor of the exchequer—
though he was unsuccessful in his bid to become prime minister in 1894
when William Gladstone (fi nally) retired. It may be noted incidentally that
American President Benjamin Harrison, aft er leaving the White House in