The Founder
The Beginnings and the Education
The Beginnings
Iosif Constantin Dragan was born in Lugoj (Romania) on the 20th of June 1917 from Stefan Dragan, a tanner, and his wife Cornelia Murariu.
They had three children: Bujorel, the eldest, died of appendicitis at the age of two. In his memoirs, Iosif Constantin Dragan recalls that although he died at a very early age, he left a clear memory of himself, connected to the times when the Austro-Hungarian authorities would requisition wheat (See Iosif Constantin Dragan, Vita europea, Venezia, Edizione il Doge, 1991, p. 52).
Iosif was born three years later, in 1917, and was named Iosif after his grandfather and Constantin after his godfather. About his own birth the author comments, in the same book, that he was born under the constellation of Gemini and that is perhaps responsible for the fact that he always lived in a harmonious duality, where two opposite yet complementary spirits had to coexist. Besides the irony of astrological explanation, duality and the concurrent presence of different vocations were to be a recurrent theme in the life of dr. Dragan.
Two more brothers where born after him: Jianu Stefan and Zeno Simion. Jianu studied medicine and, like his father, became a master tanner. Zeno was a high achiever in his studies and like his brother Jianu, after completing his secondary studies, enrolled as a medical student. He began his studies at the University of Bucharest, completing his degree in Milan, where he is still living and working as a doctor.
Education
Iosif Constantin Dragan commenced his education obtaining a secondary school diploma from the prestigious lyceum Coriolan Brediceanu in Lugoj. Further, he studied in the Facutly of Law at the University of Bucharest, where he was awarded his first degree in 1938. Iosif Constantin Dragan had very good reasons for choosing law: he was convinced, since a young age, that when studying law one is not studying an ordinary subject but rather opening a window into society and life.
Since birth – observed Iosif Constantin Dragan – man lives within a legally organized community so that law shouldn’t be studied as a means to a particular career but rather as a kind of conditio sine qua non to extend and complement general culture. In fact, ideally everybody should study law, considering that the law is part of everyday living where man accomplishes a series of legal acts – unless he ignores them – claiming his rights and fulfilling his duty. His belief in the importance of knowing the law was as deep as his love for his country and his Europeanism. Although he could have been exempted from military service on health grounds (he later made a full recovery from pneumonia and a broken rib), his love of country made him request to enlist even as a plain soldier. Finally he enlisted in the 42nd artillery regiment as a soldier on a reduced term (namely for one year) and was assigned to the reserves. Further to that he insisted on mobilizing to the frontline and was posted to Lipova, near the border.
Studying in Italy
His love of studying and his university education were decisive factors. At the time the Romanian capital was a hive of liveliness and culture, hence its reputation as “Paris of the Balkans”. Iosif Constantin Dragan absorbed that atmosphere and transformed it, through his own personal experience, which had already propelled him beyond those confines. Even in those early years he was imbued with a Europeanist spirit; he was already searching for his roots and was certain he would find them in that far country from which, almost two thousand years earlier had come the men who had initially conquered his country, shaping and populating it: Italy.
In 1940 he received a scholarship from the Italian Institute of Culture in Bucharest and moved to Italy, where he attended courses in the Faculty of Political and Economic Science at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. There he met the great Philosopher of Law Giorgio Del Vecchio, who was already famous but discriminated by race laws. Giorgio Del Vecchio soon considered him one of his favourite students. Iosif Constantin Dragan as a student was aware that “Law and Philosophy are bound to meet” and, happy with the introduction of Philosophy of the Law into the Faculty of Law, he studied, divulged and translated the thoughts and works of his great mentor: Giorgio Del Vecchio. Thus the first ever translation into Romanian of Lezioni di filosofia del diritto by Del Vecchio, was translated by young Dragan, and published.
In fact, after the war his friend and mentor Del Vecchio was reinstated to the university chair while Iosif Constantin Dragan enabled Romanians to read the celebrated Lezioni di filosofia del Diritto, through his translation. But to be able to keep himself while studying he had to work: he did translations, took on humble jobs, and used his ingenuity to add to his scholarship. He tried everything personally and learned something from each difficulty.
Iosif Constantin Dragan obtained his second degree in Italy with Professor Guido Zanobini and a thesis on “corporatism” and began to follow his vocation for business which soon lead him to start another entrepreneurial activity in the petroleum sector, importing into Italy from Romania.