Ernesto Garzón Valdés

[1] He had been a professor of philosophy of law at the universities of Córdoba and La Plata in Argentina and, upon being exiled in Germany during the administration of Isabel Perón and the subsequent dictatorship in Argentina, at the universities of Bonn, Cologne and Mainz.

He worked at the embassy of the Republic of Argentina in Bonn as a cultural attaché and as plenipotentiary minister until 1974, when he was expelled from the diplomatic service for political reasons.

He then taught legal philosophy at Bonn and Cologne, until he gained a chair in political science at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in 1981.

He was a classic liberal, who especially cared about the universal protection of the individual against despotism of state authorities.

Topics like the relationship between the rule of law and paternalism and tolerance appealed to him even before they received widespread attention.