Robert Badinter(March 30, 1928 - ) is a very notable figure in both French and European political stages. He did and does have a lot of titles. He is prominent French lawyer, politician, university law professor, academic critic. He is also a member of many committees , such as French Foreign Affairs, French Defense and Armed Forces, European Affairs, the Socialist Group. He did and does have been appointed president in various organizations such as the Constitutional Council of François Mitterrand’s ministration, the OSCE, the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration since 1995, the Australia-Western Balkans. He served as a senator of Hauts-de-Seine (Ile-de-France), etc.. But among these titles, what makes him highly known is his sharp-cut attitude against death penalty.

Robert Badinter was born in Paris on March 30, 1928. He father, who had emigrated from Poland, had been captured in Lyon during the World War II, and was slain in Prison Camp of Sobibor. That made him decide to study Law. As a very learned professor, Robert Badinter got his B.A., L.L.B., A.M. and L.L.D. degree respectively from Sorbonne - Paris, Paris University, Columbia University and Paris-School of Law from 1947-1954. He started his lawyer career in Paris in 1951, successfully finished the « agrégation de Droit » and got his highest law degree in 1965. Meanwhile, he established his own law agency known as « Badinter, Bredin and partners », which has been acting as a business law and common law of government. The second year he was appointed professor of Law. He had been a law professor in the very famous university of Panthéon – Sorbonne, from 1974 - 1994 until his retirement.

During the 1971 revolt in Clairvaux Prison, two prisoners, Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet captured two hostages - a prison guard and a nurse; Claude Buffet killed the hostages. After Buffet had been made verdict as murderer alone during that trial, but later Roger Bontems was also sentenced to death by the jury, and was executed on November 28, 1972. Sentencing a man who had not murdered people to death made Robert Badinter very angry. This event marked the beginning of his fight against the death sentence.

In his whole life he had acted as a defense attorney in many cases. His first successful endeavor happened in the case of Patrick Henry’s kidnapping and murder in 1977. He agreed to defend Patrick Henry, who was suspected of having kidnapped and killed a 7-year old boy, Philipe Bertrand, in January 1976. By his eloquent argument against the death sentence in 1977, he saved Patrick Henry to life imprisonment. Since then, the debate against death sentence was allowed in France.

From 1971 to 1981, Robert Badinter had been struggling against some important cases of death penalty. Because of his proposal, the Republic president absolved billionaire Christina Von Opel and set him free on August 13, 1981. The same year before being appointed minister of Justice, in his last trial he defended Robert Faurisson, a Holocaust denier. Through his endeavor, death penalty had been improved in France; only three people were executed from 1976 to 1981.

June 23,1981 Robert Badinter started his political career as minister of Justice. He continued this office until 18 February 1986. During his service, on September 30, 1981, "on behalf of the Government of the Republic", he annulled the death penalty in France, and passed bills on improving human rights, desuetude of the “exceptional trials”, etc.. From 1986 March to 1995 March, he had been serving as president of the Constitutional Council appointed by François Mitterrand - the Republic president. Since September 24,1995, he had also been elected a senator for nine years by the département des Hauts de Seineto.

In his last political career, Robert Badinter has been struggling for international conflicts, trying to convince European countries to get along with each other peacefully and settle disputes and conflicts in means of mediation and arbitration. the Stokholm Convention was suggested by Robert Badinter and held in 1992, which has gained wide recognition from all over the world. 31 countries have put their signatures on it and 23 have passed. For six years he has been the president of the « Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in the O.S.C.E. » in Geneva.

Death penalty has disappeared from the whole France and many European countries, but still in other countries of the world, it is being still applied actively, especially in China and America. Robert Badinter believed that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who had been hanged by Bush administration on December 31, 2006, was "a major political error." As a leader of the World Congress I against the Death Penalty, he continues to work for human rights.

Robert Badinter has had twice marriage. His first wife was the famous French actress named Anne Vernon. After divorce, he remarried a famous philosophy Ph. D professor in university of Ecole Polytechnique, Elisabeth Badinter, who is also a writer and feminist. They have three children.

As a 81 year-old man, he is still an activist to strive for anti death sentence in other countries of the world, calling on people against death penalty in the world political stage.