El Colegio de México & juan Iglesias Santos Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2001

The Jury for the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2001, convened in Oviedo, comprising Raúl Bocanegra Sierra, Íñigo Cavero Lataillade, Álvaro Cuervo, Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, Enrique Fuentes Quintana, Valentina Gómez Mampaso, Luis González Seara, María del Carmen Iglesias, Juan Iranzo Martín, Luis Martínez Noval, Aurelio Menéndez Menéndez, José Manuel Otero Novas, Ángel Rojo Fernández-Río, chaired by Manuel Fraga Iribarne and with Manuel Jesús González as secretary has unanimously decided to jointly grant the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2001 to Professor Iglesias Santos and The Colegio de México.

Professor Juan Iglesias Santos has been a master for generations of Spanish and Latin American jurists, and is an eminent specialist in Roman Law of international status who has researched and taught prolifically for over sixty years. He has been Professor of Roman Law at the universities of Oviedo, Salamanca and Barcelona, and has held the same position at the Complutense University of Madrid since 1953. He is a permanent, full member of both the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of Naples. He is also the honorary President of the Spanish Society of Roman Law, as well as being a member of the Société Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquité.

"Roman Law: History and Institutions", which has served many thousands of Spanish and Latin American undergraduates, stands out from amongst his many publications. His "Roman Law: The Institutions of Private Law" also deserves special mention, having achieved international acclaim.

In bestowing this award on Dr. Iglesias Santos, the jury attached great value to his exemplary dedication to the University, to his important contribution to a greater and more widespread knowledge of Roman Law, and to the significant role he has played towards a greater understanding of the different versions of Spanish Civil Law. From a stance based on the reasoning of the jurists of Rome, Dr. Iglesias Santos has managed to instil in his students and disciples a profound love of the supreme value of Justice.

The Colegio de México is a State-run institution for higher education and research into the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Its origins date back to the Casa de España, founded in 1938 by President Lázaro Cárdenas, who launched this project to take in a host of Spanish intellectuals in times of difficult political and personal circumstances, thus providing the opportunity for them to continue their creative work in a multitude of scientific and artistic fields. Such illustrious names as Daniel Cosío Villegas, León Felipe, Luis Recaséns Sitges, José Moreno Villa and José Gaos, amongst many others, joined the great figures of Mexican Science and Art such as Alfonso Reyes, Gustavo Baz and Eduardo Villaseñor, to form what was to become from the very outset one of the most prestigious academic centres of all Latin America.

In bestowing this award, the jury attached great value to the extraordinary importance of the Colegio de México in Latin America's cultural milieu. It was, and still remains, a centre-point of Spanish culture, and makes a decisive contribution to maintaining and strengthening the many different links between Mexico and Spain.

Oviedo, 23rd May 2001