Career
His fame rests principally on his authorship of the doctrine, bearing his name, that persons living in a foreign country should settle their complaints through local courts and not by demands made through their diplomatic representatives. The Calvo Doctrine was first advanced in 1902. Because of a certain similarity, it is often confused with the Drago Doctrine, which claims that foreign nations have no right to use force in the collection of debts from the debtor country. Calvo was ambassador to Germany, Great Britain, and France, and in 1884, was one of the founders of the Institut de Droit International. The publication in 1863 of his principal work, Derecho internacional teorico y practico de Europa y America, made him a prominent authority on international law. His 15-volume collection of Latin American treaties and diplomatic papers, published between 1862 and 1867, is also a monumental work. Between 1864 and 1875 he also published a five-volume set, Annales historiques de la révolutionrevolution de l'Amerique latine.