(1843–1914), Swiss lawyer, statesman, and Nobel laureate. Born in Tramelan, he was educated at the universities of Bern, Basel, and Heidelberg. He did additional graduate work at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France. He practiced law and lectured at the University of Bern before establishing a successful practice in the town of Delémont. He served in several minor public offices and was elected to the Grand Council of Bern in 1882.

During 24 years as superintendent of Bern's department of public education, Gobat introduced vocational education and obtained government funding of the fine arts, while reducing the requirements for classical languages and increasing the study of modern languages and the natural sciences. He remained active in local and national politics, becoming a member of the National Council in 1890 and retaining this position until his death. In 1891 he was head of the Swiss delegation to the third conference of the Interparliamentary Union (founded in 1889) and was asked to set up the next conference, in Bern, in 1892. He was chosen director of the Interparliamentary Bureau, the union's headquarters at Bern, and coordinated the union's activities and organized its conferences. In 1902 he introduced a bill into the Swiss legislature applying the principle of arbitration to commercial treaties.

Gobat shared the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize with the Swiss peace advocate Élie Ducommun for his “eminently practical administration” of the Interparliamentary Union. He succeeded (1906) Ducommun as director of the International Peace Bureau (founded in 1891 in Rome at the third conference of the Interparliamentary Union). He withdrew from the leadership of the Interparliamentary Union in 1909, but presided over its 1912 conference.