International Economic Law and Human Rights

Abstract

This is a contribution to a collection of remembrances from people who knew and were influenced by John’s work. The focus is on John’s intellectual contribution to the world of international economic law. But this contribution is also intended to be of a very personal kind. And indeed it is difficult to separate John’s personality from his great intellectual contribution to his subject. I had the good fortune to meet John Jackson at the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, in 1983. But the story goes back to 1974–75, when his Michigan colleague Eric Stein, founding father of European law in the USA and indeed perhaps globally, was Ford Visiting Professor in the University of London. European law was just starting in London, the UK having entered the then European Communities in 1973, and Eric made a substantial contribution with discussions, lectures and his participation in a workshop on European law and the individual. He subsequently invited me to give the 1983 Cooley lectures, together with Jochen Frowein and Paul C. Weiler, on the subject of human rights.