Law Historian

Maïté Lafourcade is Emeritus Professor for History of Law at the ‘Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour' working at the multidiscipline faculty located in Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz since it was set up, and director of the Basque Studies Research Centre at this University.

Born in Bayonne in 1934, she graduated in Law from the University of Bordeaux and also holds higher level private study diplomas in Law and History of Law from the University of Paris, and a state doctorate thesis on "Marriage contract in Labourd during the reign of Louis XVI. Legal and sociological study." (3 volumes) which was published by the University of the Basque Country when Professor Gregorio Monréal Zia was Rector there. She joined the University of Pau in 1968 as a teaching assistant, and then as a lecturer, and finally became University Professor in History of Law at the Bayonne Faculty. In 1992 she created a Basque Studies Research Centre there and works actively with the law section of Eusko-Ikaskuntza, particularly involved in the publication of four works: "The current practice of common law in the Basque Country", "The French-Spanish border, place of inter-state conflicts and inter-regional collaboration", "1492-1992. The exodus of the Spanish Jews to Bayonne. From the banks of the Ebro and the Tajo towards Bayonne", "The border of origins nowadays."
She has written 61 articles, including 55 on the Basque Country (Iparralde) and has given 84 conferences. She still teaches Basque law in a public classroom 26 hours a year, to 1st year students of Basque Studies in Bayonne attended by around 10 to 15 people from the general public per year, in addition to the students.

She is an academic prize officer, holder of the ‘Croix d'or du Mérite et dévouement français', the ‘Croix de vermeil des Arts, Sciences et Lettres', General Secretary of the Association to Safeguard the childhood of the Basque Country, honorary member of the ‘Real Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del País', and Vice-President of Eusko-Ikaskuntza Iparralde since she helped to set it up with the President Grégorio Monréal when he was the President of Eusko-Ikaskuntza.

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