326 A Positive Century (1815–1914)was not on his own country’s delegation, but he made himself useful on be-
half of the newly created state of Panama. For Switzerland, Max Huber was
present— a future World Court judge and director of the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
Heading the Cuban delegation was a young, but experienced, lawyer
named Antonio Sanchez de Bustamante. He is surely without peer as a
youthful prodigy in the fi eld. He became a professor of international law at
the University of Havana in 1884 at the ripe age of nineteen, by way of a
competitive examination. Perhaps academic life was in the blood, since his
father was a dean of the university. In all events, he remained on the Havana
faculty for the rest of his life. In 1902, he became a senator in his newly in de-
pen dent country. He would later do long ser vice as a World Court judge.
Th e conference’s most theatrical fi gure was the Brazilian lawyer Ruy Bar-
bosa de Oliveira. He certainly had one of the more colorful backgrounds of
the conferees. A reformist journalist and politician, he served as minister of
justice and fi nance in the government that overthrew the Brazilian monar-
chy in 1889. He then became one of the draft ers of the republican constitu-
tion of Brazil the following year. His time as fi nance minister was both
short- lived and disastrous, marked by an unstable currency and speculative
bubbles. Aft er being accused of involvement in a naval revolt, he fl ed the
country but returned later and regained his former prominence. As Brazil’s
chief representative at Th e Hague, he impressed his fellow delegates by his
multilingual eloquence, earning the nickname “the ea gle of the Hague.”
Most memorably, he became the spokesman for what would later be called
the developing countries, in whose cause he delivered a memorable oration
insisting on fi rm adherence to the principle of the equality of all states.
“[S]overeignty,” he proclaimed, “is the prime and elemental right of consti-
tuted and in de pen dent states. Th erefore sovereignty signifi es equality. In
theory, as in practice, sovereignty is absolute. It knows no grades.” So strik-
ing an impression did he make that, on his return to Brazil, he was given a
hero’s welcome. Two years later, he ran for president, putting his eloquence to
work in support of democracy and in strident opposition to military involve-
ment in politics. Th e campaign was unsuccessful, but it confi rmed his status
as one of the most forceful personalities of his generation.
In this second conference, the role of Martens was less dominant than be-
fore, largely because of health considerations. Th e most prominent legal fi gure