Osvaldo Illanes Benítez (23 October 1898 – 21 January 1988) was a Chilean lawyer and judge who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Chile from 1951 to 1970 and as president of the Supreme Court from 1966 to 1969.
Early life Illanes was born in Villa Alegre, the son of Alfredo Illanes Beytía and Lastenia Benítez Méndez. His brother, Alfredo Illanes, pursued a political career, serving as a mayor, governor and member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile.
He attended the Instituto Nacional, where he was a student of writer Carlos Vicuña Fuentes. He subsequently studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, completing his legal studies at the University of Chile. He qualified as a lawyer on 9 September 1924.
On 8 January 1926, Illanes married María Adriana Ríos Gallardo in Santiago. They had three children.
Judicial career After qualifying as a lawyer, Illanes worked as an assistant attorney at the retirement and social security fund of the State Railways. He entered the Chilean judiciary on 31 May 1927 as a court reporter at the Court of Appeals of Santiago. On 21 March 1930, he assumed the same position at the Supreme Court of Chile.
Illanes was appointed a justice of the Court of Appeals of Santiago on 26 June 1939. On 30 April 1951, he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court. He served as president of the Supreme Court from 1966 to 1969. He retired from the judiciary on 3 March 1970.
Illanes was a member of the International Commission of Jurists, serving as its vice-president in 1967. In 1974, he was responsible for organising an ICJ mission to Chile, requested by the World Council of Churches, to examine the human rights situation under the military dictatorship established the previous year. The mission concluded that the regime of Augusto Pinochet had violated the Geneva Conventions through its declaration of a "state of war" and reported the use of torture against opponents of the regime. Although Illanes did not dispute the mission's findings, he accused the ICJ of acting in "bad faith" and resigned from the organisation.
He was also a member of the Instituto de Conmemoración Histórica de Chile, serving as its president from 1976 to 1981.
Works Escrutando un horizonte (1970)
Awards and honours Star and Cross of Honour of the International Academy of Jurists (1956)
References