We all know Ivan Tavčar, PhD, as a writer, many as a politician, but few
as a lawyer, although he was a lawyer all his life and he never retired.
Contempo- raries called his law firm a "fortress of liberalism”. Because
Ivan Tavčar stood for economic, religious, political,
and ideological freedom of the individual. He stood for fundamental ideas such
as the constitution, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,
and freedom of religion. He stood for the equality of all people, for equality before
the law and for the autonomy of nations. The title of the academy, at which the
author presented this text as a speaker, is therefore somewhat appropriate:
"Let’s look up to Tavčar!”
Key words: Ivan Tavčar, lawyer, writer, politician, liberalism, Slovene language,
freedom of the individual, Austro-Hungarian empire.