Cot, Pierre

Born Nov. 20, 1895, in Grenoble. French political figure. Lawyer.

Cot was a deputy to the National Assembly from the Radical and Radical Socialist parties from 1928 to 1940. Cot was air minister in 1933–34 and 1936–38 and trade minister from March 1938 to May 1939. When fascist Germany occupied France (1940), he emigrated to Great Britain; later he went to the USA. In 1944—45 he was a member of the Provisional Consultative Assembly in Algiers and deputy to the Constituent Assembly (1945). During 1946–58 and 1964–68 he served as a deputy to the National Assembly from the Union of Progressive Republicans (commonly called the Progressists).

Cot was one of the organizers of the Peace Movement. He was also a member of the bureau of the World Peace Council, as well as one of the three chairmen of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Cot served as the head of the department of the sociology of law and international relations at the Higher School of Scientific Research in Paris (1960–69). From July 1951 through January 1962 he served as the executive editor of the international journal Horizons (Russian edition: V zashchitu mira, “In Defense of Peace”). Cot was awarded the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Between Nations in 1953.