La Fontaine was born in
Brussels on 22 April 1854 and studied law at the
Free University of Brussels (now split into the
Université libre de Bruxelles and the
Vrije Universiteit Brussel). He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and established a reputation as an authority on
international law. He and his sister
Léonie La Fontaine were early advocates for
women's rights and
suffrage, founding in 1890 the
Belgian League for the Rights of Women. World War I convinced La Fontaine that the world would establish an international court when peace returned. He proposed a number of possible members, including
Joseph Hodges Choate,
Elihu Root,
Charles William Eliot, and
Andrew Dickson White. La Fontaine also promoted the idea of unification of the world's
pacifist organizations. He was a member of the Belgian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and to the League of Nations Assembly (1920–21). Henri La Fontaine was a
freemason, and a member of the lodge
Les Amis Philanthropes in Brussels. He died on 14 May 1943 in Brussels. ==Works==