Detlev F. Vagts

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Detlev Frederick Vagts (born February 13, 1929 in Washington, DC , † August 20, 2013 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American lawyer and professor at Harvard University .

family

Vagts was born the son of German-born historian Alfred Vagts and his wife Miriam Beard in Washington, DC. His father left Germany shortly before the NSDAP came to power, initially for London in autumn 1933, the family moved to the United States and later settled in Princeton . His mother was a reporter for the New York Times . His maternal grandfather was Charles A. Beard . Vagts father was friends with Hans von Dohnanyi . In 1937 Detlev Vagts and his parents were expatriated by decree of the Reich and Prussian Interior Ministry.

Vagts married Dorothy L. Larkin. With her he had two daughters and two grandchildren.

Career

Vagts received his education at Harvard College, which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1948 . He then studied at Harvard Law School . During a stay in Germany, he witnessed the general's trial against members of the Wehrmacht High Command . This process brought him to international law. After completing his studies in 1951, he was admitted to the bar and initially worked for the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel . Between 1953 and 1956 he served as a legal advisor in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Air Force . He then returned to his previous employer. In 1959 he accepted a teaching position at his alma mater . In 1962 he got there eventually a reputation as a professor for international law . From 1969 until his retirement in 2005, Vagts was responsible for coordinating the law school's doctoral program . In 1984 he took over the professorship for international law named after George Bemis from Louis Bruno Sohn . Together with his son and Andreas Lowenfeld , he worked on the third edition of the Restatement of the law , which was published in 1987 under the direction of Louis Henkin . In addition to his work as a professor, he advised the United States Department of State on issues of international law between 1976 and 1977 . In 1991 he received a Max Planck Research Award in the field of humanities. In 1993 Vagts was elected Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law alongside Theodor Meron . In 2010, Vagts was involved in a traffic accident in which a person was killed. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years probation and six months of house arrest in 2011 .

plant

Vagts dealt primarily with international law , international legal history , international and comparative law Economic and Corporate Law . In addition to monographs, he wrote over a hundred articles in compilations and magazines in the course of his career. He was the editor of the book reviews of the American Journal of International Law from 1986 to 1993 and then from 1993 to 1998 with Theodor Meron the editor of the American Journal of International Law.

In 1968 he founded the Casebook Transnational Legal Problems with Henry Steiner (4th edition 1994) and in 1986 the Casebook Transnational Business Problems (4th edition 2008). The work, founded by Steiner, transcended the traditional boundaries between public international law and international private law and encompassed issues of transnational civil and public law, international dispute settlement, military law, legal history and comparative law, international company law and legal development.

In the area of ​​legal history, his essay International Law in the Third Reich is considered to be groundbreaking as a comprehensive representation of National Socialist international law doctrine and science.

Publications (selection)

  • Transnational Business Problems . Foundation Press, 3rd Edition New York 2003, ISBN 1-58778-538-2 .
  • The treaty-making process: a guide for outsiders . In: ILSA journal of international & comparative law . Vol. 17, No. 1, 2010, ISSN  1052-3391 , pp. 127-145.
  • Humanizing the laws of war: selected writings of Richard Baxter . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-019-968-025-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bardo Fassbender, Detlev F. Vagts, Archiv des Völkerrechts 2013, 509 (511).
  2. ↑ Bardo Fassbender, Detlev F. Vagts, Archiv des Völkerrechts 2013, 509 (512).
  3. ↑ Bardo Fassbender, Detlev F. Vagts , Archiv des Völkerrechts 2013, 509 (512).
  4. ↑ Julia L. Ryan: Former Professor Pleads Guilty For Homicide: HLS Professor admits guilt in vehicular homicide . In: The Harvard Crimson . September 21, 2011 ( online [accessed January 27, 2014]).
  5. ↑ a b Bardo Fassbender, Detlev F. Vagts , Archiv des Völkerrechts 2013, 509 (510)
  6. ↑ Harold Hongju Koh / William S. Dodge / Hannah L. Buxbaum , In Memoriam: Detlev F. Vagts (1929-2013) , Opinio Juris of 23 August 2013.
  7. ↑ AJIL Volume 84 (2001), pp. 661-704.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vagts, Detlev F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vagts, Detlev Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, professor at Harvard University
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2013
Place of death Cambridge , Massachusetts