Attorney Istrate Micescu
Attorney Istrate Micescu was a famous legal expert in interwar Romania, as well as a university professor and politician
Steliu Lambru, 16.10.2022, 17:02
Attorney Istrate Micescu was a famous legal expert in interwar Romania, as well as a university professor and politician. He was born in 1881 in the city of Ploiesti, 60 km north of Bucharest. Micescu was the descendant of a noble family in Arges County, which goes back in documents to the 16th century. He read law in Paris, and defended his PhD there in 1906. He practiced law in the bar associations in the counties of Arges and Ilfov, and during the same time he taught civil law and philosophy at the University of Bucharest. He impressed whole generations with his teaching prowess, and was practically idolized for it, while he gained notoriety with the cases he pleaded in court.
The story of this special character was told to Radio Romanias Center for Oral History in the year 2000, by political detainee Aurel Obreja, who was a fellow political prisoner alongside the attorney in the 1950s. His notoriety was to a large extent based on the perception that the public had about attorneys, that of being a cynical bunch. Here is Aurel Obreja:
“I was incarcerated with Miceascus secretary, Horia Cosmovici, a very sharp individual, who told us the story of how Istrate Micescu was winning trials. He told us the story of a trial in England involving a lord who had murdered his wife. The lord asked around for the best lawyer, and found out about one Istrate Micescu from Romania. He hired him, and told him what it was all about. He had killed his wife, he couldnt suffer her any more. He had stricken her over the head and she died. So Micescu went to court. And he started saying: Honored court, esteemed jurors…, and he stopped. The judge told him to proceed. He starts once again, Honored court, esteemed jurors… He did that a couple of more times, and finally the judge lost his patience, and said: Well, go on, council!. And he said: Do you see, your honor, you cant have the patience to bear with me for 10 minutes to start my defense statement, but this poor man had to put up with his wife with 20 years!. In the end, the lord was acquitted.”
This professional fame guided him to politics. Micescu was a Liberal, and was elected to Parliament in 1920, 1927, and 1931. He was an admirer of King Carol II, and started being an acolyte around 1930. During that decade, he started being more and more vocal in terms of his anti-Semite and racist views, and joined the Goga-Cuza Fascist government between December 1937 and February 1938 as a foreign minister. He was the founding father of the 1938 constitution, which consolidated the authoritarian rule of the king. Micescu became a member of the Higher National Council of the Front of National Rebirth, the single party in the country after 1938. He was also a senator in the newly minted parliament, and minister of justice under the Gheorghe Tatarescu government, between November 1939 and May 1940. One of his more egregious so-called achievements was that of presiding over the 1937 Bucharest Bar Association meeting which disbarred all Jewish attorneys.
However, history steered Micescus destiny in a different direction. After 1945, once the Soviets entered Romania, he was detained for being a supporter of the Fascist government. He was disbarred, was arrested in 1948, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died on May 22, 1951, in the penitentiary in Aiud, and his death was witnessed by Nicolae Enescu, who was imprisoned while he was a law student.
“The door opened, and Iordache came in. He was a political police officer, a horrific being. We scurried to our cots, and he said: How are you, lads? You know what that meant? Can you imagine this horrible beast of a man, who kicked and punched us at random for no reason, to speak so gently? We just stared at each other, witlessly, thinking something had changed. And one of us, Doctor Uta, answered Iordache: Well, you know how it is, commander, sir… What with our woes, our illnesses… And Iordache asked: Which one of you is ill? Doctor Uta said: Professor Micescu. Take me to him! And we took him to Istrate Micescus bed, who was on his last leg. So Iordache asked Whats wrong with him? Cant he be saved? We stared at each other in disbelief, at such level of care, because usually they wouldnt give us even an aspirin. And Doctor Uta said: Yes, commander, sir, if you would sign to approve some medication for him. Ok, yes, Ill sign it. He ripped a sheet of paper from a notebook, and told the doctor to start writing the prescription, then he handed it back. We, in our naivete, thought something had changed in the beasts behavior. But Iordache just got the sheet of paper and threw it on Istrate Micescus chest, and said: I know what you need, you bandit! Four planks of wood, and well provide that! And this is how Istrate Micescu died.”
Istrate Micescus notoriety was due to his professional acumen, and his rigor in his law practice. However, his personality did not rise up to his professional competency.
