MODERN SCHOLARS' VIEWS ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE PROFESSOR H. LAUTERPACHT TO THE CREATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND ITS LEGAL ENFORCEMENT

Abstract

This article examines Sir G. Lauterpacht’s respective contributions to contemporary international human rights law by concentrating on their European experience from their youth in Central Europe. Fiercely committed to the rule of law and holding the powerful to account, Lauterpacht was instrumental in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, and his work forged the foundations of our modern human rights laws. Key to his contribution to the Human Rights Law was the belief that human rights could only be protected if powerful institutions were created to monitor and enforce them. Lauterpacht advocated a quasi-judicial body, similar to what became the European Commission on Human Rights. The articulation and recognition of human rights in international law was integral to his systematic defining and refining of the discipline through his academic and professional writings, which actively engaged contemporary legal theory and international relations debates. His corpus covered the breadth of international law through his authorship of major monographs and hundreds of articles and reviews. International scientific events that took place in the Lviv region are analyzed in this article (the international scientific conference «Legal concepts of H. Lauterpacht in the theory and practice of the International Law», series of scientific and memorial measures that took place in Lviv on November 9–12, 2017, organized by the non-governmental research center «Center for Urban History of East Central Europe» (director – Sofia Dyak). Program «Rights, Justice, and Memories of Lviv» (November 9–11, 2017) launched with lecture «Moving Beyond East West Street – Challenges for the Future and the Rule of Law» by Philippe Sands (the UCU Rule of Law Lecture Series) and continued on November 11 with unveiling of memorial plaques and art performance «East West Street: A Song of Good and Evil» at Lviv Philharmonic. This event brought together scholars from the fields of history, law, international law, and intellectual history. Among participants were: Markiyan Bem (European Court of Human Rights), Kateryna Busol (Global Rights Compliance), Norman Davies (University College London), (Franziska Exeler (Cambridge University / Free University in Berlin), Douglas Irvin-Erickson (GMU), Pieter Lagrou and Ornella Rovetta (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Louisa McClintock (Columbia University), Reut Paz (Giessen University), William Pomeranz (Kennan Institute), Philippe Sands (University College London), Mira Siegelberg (Queen Mary, University of London), Iryna Sklokina (Center for Urban History), Stefan Troebst (Leipzig University), and Natasha Wheatley (University of Sydney), Lori Damrosch (Columbia University), Sean Murphy (George Washington University), Gerry Simpson (London School of Economics and Political Science).