Renault, Louis

▪ French industrialist

born 1877, Paris, France

died Oct. 24, 1944, Paris

      manufacturer who built the largest automobile company in France.

      Renault built his first automobile in 1898. He and his brothers Fernand and Marcel then built a series of small cars and formed the automobile firm Renault Frères (“Renault Brothers”). Renault vehicles attracted much attention by winning numerous road races until Marcel was killed during a Paris-Madrid run in 1903. Renault then abandoned racing and concentrated on manufacturing. In 1918 he produced the Renault tank, which was often used as a troop-escort vehicle in the last months of World War I. He continued to increase the productive capacity of his Boulogne-Billancourt works and after the war extended his production to include farm equipment, marine and industrial machinery, and diesel motors.

      His continued production of military equipment under the German occupation in World War II led to his being incarcerated after liberation on charges of collaboration. He died while awaiting trial; the Renault company was subsequently nationalized. See also Renault.

▪ French jurist and educator

born May 21, 1843, Autun, France

died Feb. 8, 1918, Barbizon

      French jurist and educator, cowinner in 1907 (with Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (Moneta, Ernesto Teodoro)) of the Nobel Prize for Peace.

      From 1868 to 1873 Renault was professor of Roman and commercial law at the University of Dijon. From 1873 until his death he was professor in the faculty of law at the University of Paris, where in 1881 he became professor of international law. In 1890 he was appointed jurisconsult of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a post created for him in which he scrutinized French foreign policy in the light of international law. He served at numerous conferences in this capacity, notably at the two Hague conferences in 1899 and 1907 and the London naval conference of 1908–09.

      Renault was prominent as an arbitrator, his more famous cases including the Japanese House Tax case of 1905, the Casa Blanca case of 1909, the Sawarkar of 1911, the Carthage of 1913, and the Manouba of 1913. Among his writings are articles and monographs on the specialized topics of international law. Together with his friend and colleague C. Lyon-Caen, he produced several works on commercial law, including a compendium in two volumes, a treatise in eight volumes, and a manual that ran to many editions.

      In 1879 Renault published his Introduction to the Study of International Law and in 1917 First Violations of International Law by Germany, concerning the invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg in breach of Germany's treaty obligations.

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