Marcel Bridel, born on 19 May 1898 in Clarens (Montreux), died on 11 April 1980 in Lausanne, did his studies in jurisprudence at the Universities of Lausanne and Paris, before receiving his doctorate in 1927 from the University of Lausanne.
After having been a secretary at the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, he was nominated extraordinary professor in 1936 and ordinary professor for public law in 1943. In 1948 he changed to the chair for compared theory of institutions at the department of social and political sciences at the very same University, and between 1949 and 1952 he signed as a vice president for the Executive Committee of the international Association for Political Studies.
Marcel Bridel has taken an active role in the foundation of modern political science in Switzerland and was a founding member as well as the first member of the board of directors of the Swiss Association for Political Science in 1959. Between 1959 and 1960 he also assisted with the elaboration of the Constitution of Cyprus.
Selected Works of the Author
Marcel Bridel: Sur les limites des libertés individuelles, in: Die Freiheit des Bürgers im schweizerischen Recht, Festgabe zur Hundertjahrfeier der Bundesverfassung, hrsg. von den Iuristischen Fakultäten der schweizerischen Universitäten, Zürich: Polygraphischer Verlag, 1948, pp. 99 ss.; Idem: Essai théorique sur le régime représentatif dans les démocraties modernes, in: Mélanges François Guisan, Receuil de travaux publié par la faculté de droit de l’Université de Lausanne, Lausanne: Rouge et Cie., Librairie de l’Université, 1950, pp. 3-35; Idem: Réflexions sur le principe majoritaire dans les démocraties. In: Festschrift Werner Kägi, 1979, pp. 45 ss.; Idem (Ed.): La démocratie directe dans les communes suisses (Recueil de travaux publié par l’Institut de science politique de l’Université de Lausanne), Zürich: Polygraphischer Verlag, 1952.