Johann Jakob Blumer, born 1819, of Glarus and Schwanden (Canton of Glarus), was a historian, liberal-minded and dedicated supporter of the modern Confederation. After reading law from 1836-1840 in Lausanne and Zurich and partly abroad (Bonn and Berlin), and before his election as a federal judge in 1848, he was a judge at the civil court in Glarus. He played a key role in drafting of the new constitution as a delegate to the Diet, and in 1848 he chaired the Commission for the Determination of the Federal Seat. From 1848-1874 he represented the canton of Glarus in the Council of States, which he presided over in 1853. From 1865 he repeatedly chaired the Commission for the Revision of the Federal Constitution.
Since the founding of the Confederation he served as federal judge in the temporary federal court, which he presided over in 1858 and 1871. In addition to this judicial activity he worked in his home canton as a district administrator, councillor, and municipal councillor of Glarus, national archivist, editor of the “Glarner Zeitung” and newspaper correspondent for the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. As an author of works in legal history and outstanding publications on constitutional law, he is regarded as the true father of Swiss federalist theory. The draft cantonal Factory Act (the first of the kind worldwide), Criminal Code, Civil Code and the revised Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure made him the most important legislator in his canton of those years. He was also a member of the founding commission of the Rapperswil-Glarus Railway and the extended committee for the Südostbahn, as well as a member of the board of directors of the bank in Glarus and of the Rentenanstalt (pensions administration). On behalf of Federal Councillor Ceresole, who had to step down as federal judge after his appointment to the Federal Council, he penned the preliminary draft of the Federal Act on Organizational Structures for the Administration of Federal Law, for the Federal Supreme Court to be newly constituted under the Federal Constitution of 1874, and saw this legislative work through to its conclusion. In 1874 he was appointed to the new permanent Federal Supreme Court as its first president. He died in his second year in office, in 1876. In the words of Alfred Kölz, Johann Jakob Blumer was both a constitutionalist and a statesman, representing a tradition observed up until the First World War. He promoted ideas of natural law characterized by individual freedoms and emphasized the importance of the rights of the individual. When the Federal Constitution of 1848 entered into force he functioned somewhat like the legal conscience of the Federal Assembly, and in handling constitutional appeals and upholding cantonal constitutions he achieved significant corrections upholding the rights of individuals and democracy based on equal rights (for a more detailed discussion see Rainer J. Schweizer, Die Errichtung des ständigen Bundesgerichts 1874 und die Verdienste von Johann Jakob Blumer um diese Reform, in: Clausdieter Schott/Eva Petrig Schuler, Ed., Festschrift für Claudio Soliva zum 65. Geburtstag, Zurich 1994, pp. 295 – 309).
In his speech at the opening of the first session of the new Federal Supreme Court on 12 January 1875, Johann Jakob Blumer emphasized the significance of the day in the historical development of Switzerland. He placed particular emphasis on the development of uniform nationwide jurisdiction based on a convergence of the differing legal cultures associated with the various national languages. The United States Supreme Court served him as an example worth following.
https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/004424/2014-12-05/; swisscovery – johann jakob blumer (slsp.ch)