Álvaro Jordi d'Ors Pérez-Peix (14 April 1915 – 1 February 2004) was a Spanish scholar of Roman law, currently considered one of the best 20th-century experts on the field; he served as professor at the universities of Santiago de Compostela and Pamplona.

[4] In the 1920s he grew to nationally recognized figure as publisher, essayist, art critic, writer and philosopher; in the Francoist Spain he held high jobs related to culture.

[6] In 1906 he married[7] María Pérez Peix (1879-1972), daughter to a successful textile business entrepreneur from Barcelona;[8] a cultured person with artistic penchant, she tried her hand in music, dance, guitar, photography and especially sculpture.

[10] He was raised in luxurious[11] and bohemian atmosphere, since childhood traveling extensively abroad due to professional assignments of his father; in 1922 the family moved to Madrid.

[23] In 1945 d’Ors married Palmira Lois Estévez (1920-2003),[24] his student and daughter to a local Galician lawyer;[25] until 1961 they lived in Santiago de Compostela, and later on in Pamplona.

Both Álvaro's brothers served as requetés and one in Division Azul in Russia;[34] Víctor gained some nationwide recognition as an architect and author of related books.

[47] Though he felt very well in Santiago,[48] in 1960 and reportedly due to influence of José María Escriva[49] d’Ors moved to the newly set up University of Navarra, a corporate work of Opus Dei.

However, a competitive view is that the above seems highly debatable,[67] that he was very lenient only towards his disciples while remaining intransigent if not hostile towards those considered opponents, and that his judgment was seriously impaired by ideological fanaticism.

His interest in ancient Rome originated from juvenile visits in the British Museum,[69] but was later cultivated and developed by his academic masters José Castillejo and Ursicino Alvarez.

[70] He also admitted masterly influence of Theodor Mommsen, Otto Lenel, Leopold Wenger, Emilio Albertario; the peers he was indebted to were mostly Max Kaser and Franz Wieacker.

[71] In terms of specific issues tackled, chronologically the first was the problem of Roman citizenship regulations; d’Ors offered a new view of Edict of Caracalla and challenged the previously dominating, so-called interpolationist theory.

[79] His own specific approach consisted of particular focus on so far underestimated sources, namely papyrology and epigraphy;[80] in the early 1950s he collected and extensively commented on all known epigraphic fragments related to juridical order in Roman Spain, and later on followed new discoveries, esp.

Authority is derived from genuine wisdom, and this, in turn, is based not on human assertions, but may be ascertained through tradition[90] and from the natural order, the latter founded on divine rules.

[109] It was exposed in numerous press publications, private letters, some paragraphs and sub-chapters in his Roman law works, and above all in essays, most of them collected in separate volumes.

[125] D’Ors’ recipe for organizing human communities is described as “counter-revolutionary trinomy.” Equality is replaced with legitimity, based on family, natural law, and divine Revelation as the source of truth.

[128] Contemporary scholars list 32 building blocks of the Orsian order, among them, the exaltation of tradition, “political verticalism,” piety, Christianity, religious unity, monarchy, authority, collectivism and violence, and de-emphasizing of reason, democracy,[129] parliamentarism, nationalism,[130] capitalism and others.

It is underlined that his legitimization of violence and exaltation of the Crusade served the regime perfectly,[132] that he was exponent of the caudillaje theory,[133] that his focus on strong executive and religion supported the mix of nacional-catolicismo,[134] that he advocated “democracía orgánica”[135] and that after death of the dictator,[136] he judged him favorably.

In 1946 he took part in Congreso Nacional de Derecho Civil in Zaragoza, where he delivered a lecture endorsing foral rights; it was indirectly aimed against homogenization and centralization, favored by the Francoist regime.

A few dedicated articles followed; the work was summarized in the revision of the Spanish translation of the Code of Canon Law, edited by Martín Azpilcueta and published by Institute of the University of Navarra (2001).

[168] When released from the army in 1939 d’Ors did not engage in politics; having landed the academic job in Santiago in the mid-1940s he resumed his links with local Carlist groups,[169] he did not assume any position in organized structures of the movement.

Throughout the 1940s and the 1950s, he rather advanced his Traditionalism as a theorist of law and politics, occasionally confronting excessive Falangist zeal in the academic environment;[170] none of the historiographic studies discussing Carlism of that period mentions his name.

D’Ors co-drafted the address that the prince was to deliver during the annual Carlist Montejurra rally in 1958;[172] it contained bold references to local fueros, to the idea of subsidiarity, and hinted at the concept of a federative Europe.

[175] At the turn of the decades in public d’Ors was not identified as a Carlist zealot; politicians from the Alfonsist camp considered him their potential ally, especially given his membership in the pro-Juanista Opus Dei.

[185] According to his later account until that point, he had genuinely believed that Franco-endorsed coronation of a Carlist pretender was possible; the interview convinced him that it was an illusion, yet he went on to support the Borbón-Parmas,[186] because of his loyalty to the dynasty.

Though ideologically he was the key representative of Traditionalist orthodoxy and spoke out against subversive, revolutionary currents, marked by the deification of democracy and human rights,[200] until 1968 he was among authors most frequently published in the carlo-huguista review, Montejurra.

[202] In the early 1970s, following grand carlo-huguista rallies in Arbonne, he withdrew from Consejo del Rey and terminated his links with the newly emergent Partido Carlista.

In 1976 and encouraged by his daughter, he attended the annual Montejurra rally; according to his own account, he was unaware that the Traditionalists chose the event to confront Don Carlos Hugo and his followers.

[207] As numerous Carlist grouplets tried to overcome the period of fragmentation, d’Ors remained highly supportive; during a unification rally of 1986, which gave rise to Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista, he was present and got elected to its executive, Consejo Nacional.

[211] As an octogenarian d’Ors considered Carlism a politically lost cause; according to his 2000 letter, the role of CTC was “to save principles of the Tradition against democratic correctness, which rules today”.

[214] In 2002 d’Ors became target of heavy criticism on part of the Sixtinos; it was following his article, which presented the Carlist theme "Dios Patria Rey" as somewhat obsolete.