Eduardo Callejo de la Cuesta
Eduardo Callejo de la Cuesta was a Spanish jurist and politician, professor of the University of Valladolid, who served as Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts during the Civil Directory of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. His institutional career ended with his office presiding over the Council of State in Francoist Spain.Biography
Born on 21 September 1875 in Madrid. He moved to Sigüenza when he was eight, and, later to Cáceres, where he took the latest years of his high school education passing the Baccalaureate. He started his university studies in Law at the Central University of Madrid, graduating at the University of Valladolid; he obtained a PhD in the same area at the Central University. He was employed by the Audience of Seville from 1902 to 1905, when he returned to Valladolid to work in the later city audience. He became a lawyer in 1908, and, in 1912, he obtained the chair of Natural Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Valladolid.
From 1925 to 1930 he served as Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship.
The attempted enactment of the article 53 of the Law of University Reform promoted by Callejo in 1928, equating the private education with the public education for the purposes of the issuance of academic degrees generated a wave of unrest and protests among the students. In 1930, soon after the end of the Primo de Rivera government, he joined the National Monarchist Union along other nostalgics for the regime such as José Calvo Sotelo, Ramiro de Maeztu or the son of the dictator José Antonio.
After the onset of the Spanish State he was designated member of the Cortes Españolas in 1943. In 1945 he was appointed as President of the Council of State, serving until his death on 21 January 1950 in Madrid.
