statesman, jurist, and author who helped further governmental responsibility for social welfare in Belgium.

Elected in 1896 to the Belgian House of Representatives as a member of the Catholic Party's reform-oriented left wing, he served as minister of justice (1911–18) and helped secure passage of child-welfare legislation (1912). Subsequently, he served as prime minister (1920–21) and minister of social welfare (1932–34). He was later appointed president of the Supreme Court of the Belgian-Luxembourg Economic Council and was the Belgian delegate to the League of Nations (1928–35). In 1945 he reorganized the Catholic Party as the Social Christian Party. Serving as minister without portfolio (1949–50) and minister of justice (1950), he devoted much effort to an unsuccessful attempt to return the exiled Belgian king Leopold III to power.

A member of the Jeune Belgique (Young Belgium), a nationalist literary movement, he wrote historical novels and treatises held to depict a uniquely Belgian national spirit.