Vélez Sarsfield, Dalmacio (1800–1875)

Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield (b. 18 February 1800; d. 30 March 1875), perhaps the greatest Argentine jurist of the nineteenth century. Vélez Sarsfield was born in the city of Córdoba and studied law at the law faculty of the university there, graduating in 1823. From 1824 to 1827 he was a deputy in the Constituent Congress in Buenos Aires and was briefly one of the first professors of political economy of the period. During the 1830s he practiced law, wrote important juridical works that included Instituciones reales de España and Prontuario de práctica forense, and was named president of the Academy of Jurisprudence in 1835. In the 1850s Vélez Sarsfield was deputy and senator in the local legislatures of the province of Buenos Aires and an adviser to the provincial government. In 1863 he was named minister of finance of Argentina by President Bartolomé Mitre, and from 1868 to 1873, was minister of the interior under President Domingo Sarmiento. He is perhaps best known for his work as coauthor, with Eduardo Acevedo, of the Commercial Code of Argentina (1857) and as author of the Civil Code (1864).

See alsoArgentina: The Nineteenth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abel Chaneton, Historia de Vélez Sarsfield (1969).

Abelardo Levaggi, Dos estudios sobre Vélez Sarsfield (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Sánchez Torres y Córdoba, Izquierdo. Vélez Sársfield: Vida y obra codificadora. Córdoba, Argentina: Academia Nacional de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales de Córdoba, 2000.

Torres, Félix A. Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield en la universidad y su correspondencia en Córdoba. Córdoba, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 1997.

                                         Carlos Marichal