QC who devised concept of ‘crimes against humanity’ to be honoured with blue plaque
Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, who served on the International Court of Justice, played a key role in the first trial of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
One of the leading lawyers of the twentieth century, Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, is to be posthumously honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque placed at the front of his former home in London.
The QC, born in 1897 near the city now known as Lviv in western Ukraine, is widely recognised for having devised the concept of crimes against humanity during his illustrious career as a lawyer and judge at the International Court of Justice.
Born into a Jewish family who moved later to Vienna and then London, Lauterpacht obtained a PhD degree from the London School of Economics in 1925, writing his dissertation on “Private law analogies in international law”, which was published in 1927.
With his wife Rachel he later moved to a terraced house at Walm Lane, Cricklewood, in north-west London., where the couple’s son Eli was born. A blue plaque will be placed on the Cricklewood house in a ceremony next month.
In 1945, Lauterpacht, by then professor of international law at Cambridge, played a key role in the first trial of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.
From 1955 to 1960, the year he died, he was the British judge at the International Court of Justice. His writings are cited frequently in briefs, judgments, and advisory opinions of the World Court.
He famously once said “international law is at the vanishing point of law”. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Lauterpacht’s thinking also included the question of how this unprecedented event could be properly met by an international law, which was based on established rules and precedents.
He was asked by Israel officials for his opinion in overturning attempts by Arab states including Syria to invalidate the Jewish state’s right to declare independence.
He recommended that they avoid the International Court if possible, telling them: “There is little doubt that the real purpose of the Syrian proposal is an attempt to challenge the entire jurisdiction of the United Nations on the issue of Palestine.”
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