Jens Westengard

Jens Iverson Westengard (September 15, 1871 – September 17, 1918) was an American legal scholar and diplomat. He was a faculty member at Harvard Law School, first assistant professor (1899–1903), later Bemis Professor of International Law (1915–1918). Between 1903 and 1915, Westengard served as a General Advisor in Foreign Affairs to the Government of Siam.

Early life and education Westengard was born in Chicago, the son of Abel August and Nielsigne Dorthea (Iverson) Westengard. His father emigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1863. He attended Chicago public schools and found work as a stenographer. Saving his money to fulfill an ambition to practice law, he paid the tuition to enter Harvard Law School in the fall of 1895. Earning the LL.B.degree in 1898, he graduated second in his class of 129; he entered the Massachusetts bar in the same year. He taught on the faculty of Harvard Law School until 1903.

General Advisor to Siamese government In 1903 Westengard left Harvard to become Assistant General Advisor to the government of Siam (present-day Thailand). Through all this, Westengard, and Strobel before him, enjoyed the confidence and support of King Chulalongkorn. As General Advisor, Westengard was enormously influential in effecting a wide variety of reforms and civil improvements on behalf of the government; among these, in addition to those already mentioned, were negotiating foreign loans, drafting legislation and modifying existing laws, planning water works, restructuring the kingdom's finances and system of revenue, negotiated foreign treaties, and proposed ambassadors and ministers. For the coronation of King Rama VI in 1910, Westengard brought together the largest gathering of European royalty in Asia then known.

Memberships and honors Westerngard was a member of the American Society of International Law, the American Bar Association, Massachusetts State Bar Association, Suffolk County Bar Association, Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge Club, the Travellers and Harvard Clubs of Boston, and various Asian societies. Harvard University awarded him an honorary A.M. degree in 1903. The kingdom of Siam bestowed on him the title Phya Kalyana Maitri. From the Siamese government, he received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Elephant, Grand Cross of the Crown of Siam, special second class Order of Chula Chom Klao and second class Order of Ratanaphorn. The French government made him an officer of the Legion of Honor. Denmark awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Danneborg.