Jean-Joseph Thonissen

Who was Jean-Joseph Thonissen?

Jean-Joseph Thonissen was a professor of law at the Catholic University of Leuven and a minister in the Belgian Government.

He first performed duties in the magistracy and the administration of Limburg, but was occupied with juridical works on penal law. When dismissed by the Liberal ministry, the University of Leuven appointed him in 1848 to the chair of criminal law. In 1863 he was elected to Parliament.

Although he achieved his fame in his chosen field of penal law, his writings covered varied points of history and social science, as was evidenced by the fact that in 1886 the national jury of social sciences awarded him the prize. In penal matters he began with commentaries on the penal code and devoted himself especially to the reform of the penal procedure which he advocated while he was minister. He had conceived the vast plan of a history of criminal law, but realized only a part of it. The first part, which met with considerable success, dealt with Brahminical India, Egypt, and Judea, and contained a "Penal Code of the Pentateuch". He published a work on the penal law of the Athenian Republic. Considering the Roman period as sufficiently well-known, he took up the Frankish period, which he was unable to finish. He aroused controversy by advocating the abolition of the death penalty, which his influence helped bring about in Belgium. While not rejecting it as absolutely unlawful, Thonissen considered it useless in the social condition of the time.