PINTO, DE

PINTO, DE , family of Dutch jurists of Sephardi origin. abraham de pinto (1811–1878), Dutch jurist and public worker, was the elder brother of Aaron Adolf de Pinto. He graduated in law from the University of Leiden. He became editor of the law journal Weekblad voor het recht in 1835 and in 1840 founded the juridical review Themis which he edited for 36 years. De Pinto also published digests of several Dutch legal codes which served to make known the principles of Dutch law after the Codification of 1838. He was dean of the Order of Advocates in The Hague and a Hague municipal councilor from 1851 until 1878. As chairman of The Hague Sephardi congregation, De Pinto unsuccessfully favored cooperation between the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities in contrast to many of his contemporaries. In 1850 he established the Maatschappij tot nut der Israëlieten in Nederland (Association for the Benefit of the Jews in Holland) for the promotion of educational and vocational training for poor Jews. aaron adolf de pinto (1828–1908) was a Dutch criminal lawyer. Born in The Hague, De Pinto graduated in law from the University of Leiden. As a high official at the Netherlands Ministry of Justice from 1862 to 1876, he was largely responsible for the adoption of a New Netherlands penal code which came into force in 1886, and for the Dutch East Indies Penal Code. In 1865 De Pinto initiated and drafted the law on the abolition of the death penalty. This was adopted in 1871, against the opposition of successive ministers of justice. Subsequently he drafted the law for the complete revision of the Netherlands code of civil procedure. Rejecting the offer of a professorship and the cabinet portfolio of justice, De Pinto became a member of the Supreme Court. In 1903 he was appointed vice president. From 1878 to 1901 he was an editor of the Weekblad voor het recht, and a founder of the Netherlands Association of Jurists. Among De Pinto's numerous publications are several on the Dreyfus trial, showing that it was being conducted in violation of French legal procedure. In 1885, at a lawyers' conference in Rotterdam, he championed the rights of the Romanian Jews. For many years he was chairman of the Maatschappij tot nut der Israëlieten in Nederland (founded by his brother), and in 1908 officially opened the Eighth Zionist Congress in The Hague.

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A.A. De Pinto, Mr. Abraham de Pinto… (1879).

[Henriette Boas]