Carlo Francesco Gabba

Carlo Francesco Gabba (1835 to 1920) was an Italian jurist and professor at the University of Pisa whose studies and legal constructions influenced the law of several countries. Born in Lodi, he took part for the Italian government in the 1897 Brussels congress on the protection of industrial property and in 1899 was an adviser on diplomatic conflicts to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was elected senator in 1900, sat on the Standing Committee of the Superior Court of Justice and belonged to the Turin National Academy of Sciences, and he died in Turin. His best-known book, the Teoria della retroattivita delle leggi of 1891, set out his view of acquired rights, and his 1911 defence of the term promise of contract was reflected in the Brazilian Civil Code of 1916 and kept in the 2002 revision. He also wrote on divorce, civil marriage and the legal condition of women.