Louis Henkin

Louis Henkin (born  November 11, 1917 in Smoljani , Russian Empire ; †  October 14, 2010 in New York ), born Eliezer Henkin , was an American lawyer who was considered one of the most renowned experts in the field of human rights during his lifetime . He served from 1957 to 1962 as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and then until 1988 at Columbia University . In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Manley O. Hudson Medal and was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institut de Droit internationally .

Life

Louis Henkin was born in 1917 in the village of Smoljani, east of Minsk in what is now Belarus , the youngest of six children of Rabbi Joseph Eliahu Henkin . In 1922 he emigrated with his family to the United States . He grew up in New York , where he graduated from 1933 to study mathematics at Yeshiva University , which he finished in 1937 with an AB degree . He then studied law at Harvard University , where he received an LL.B. attained. After returning to New York, he initially worked as Judge Learned Hand's law clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the second district. He then did military service in the United States Army from 1941 to 1945 and was awarded the Silver Star during that time . He then worked in 1946/1947 as a law clerk for Felix Frankfurter , judge at the Supreme Court of the United States , and in 1947/1948 in the legal department of the United Nations .

From 1948 to 1956 he worked in the US State Department's international organizations office. During this time he was a member of the US delegations to various international meetings, including between 1950 and 1953 to the meetings of the UN General Assembly . In 1956, he moved to Columbia University as a lecturer before serving as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1957 to 1962 . In 1963 he returned to Columbia University, where he was appointed Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and, later in his career, Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law in 1978 and retired in 1988 . In 1965 and 1989 he also taught at the Hague Academy of International Law . He was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague from 1953 to 1969 and of the UN Human Rights Committee from 1999 to 2002 .

Louis Henkin was married in 1960 and has three sons. He died in New York in 2010.

Act

The focus of Louis Henkin's work was the area of human rights , in which he advocated extensive participation by the USA in the relevant international institutions. He also campaigned for the United States to respect the general prohibition of violence formulated in the UN Charter and all obligations arising from customary international law and international treaties, and accordingly criticized the United States' unilateral military operations in other countries.

His other teaching and research topics included arms control , the influence of international law on international politics , the law of the sea in the area of ​​the use of marine resources and the role of American constitutional law in international relations . Together with Oscar Schachter , he served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law from 1978 to 1984 . From 1985 to 1987 he was also President of the American Society of Political and Legal Philosophy and from 1994 to 1996 of the American Society for International Law .

Awards

In recognition of his work, Louis Henkin received the Manley O. Hudson Medal , the highest award of the American Society for International Law, as well as the Goler T. Butcher Medal in 2001 and posthumously the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human in 2010 Rights . He was also accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974 , the Institut de Droit international in 1985, and the American Philosophical Society in 1986 .

At Columbia University, which for 1981 with the appointment of his University professor gave their highest academic honor and in 1986 with the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award distinguished, with the Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights since 1999. Chair named after him. At the Law Faculty of the University of Miami , the Louis Henkin Lecture Series On Human Rights has been named after him since 2010 . Columbia University (1995) and Brooklyn Law School (1997) awarded him honorary doctorates .

Works (selection)

• Arms Control and Inspection in American Law. New York 1958
• Law for the Sea's Mineral Resources. New York 1968
• How Nations Behave: Law and Foreign Policy. New York 1970, 1979
• Foreign Affairs and the Constitution. New York 1972, 1996
• Rights of Man Today. Boulder 1978
• The International Bill of Rights: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. New York 1981
• Human Rights. New York 1999, 2009

literature

• Lori Fisler Damrosch: Louis Henkin (1917-2010). In: American Journal of International Law . 105 (2) / 2011. American Society of International Law, pp. 287-300, ISSN  0002-9300
• Peter Rosenblum: Tribute to Louis Henkin. In: Columbia Human Rights Law Review. 42 (1) / 2010. Columbia University School of Law, pp. 1-3, ISSN  0090-7944
• Michael J. Glennon: Henkin, Louis (1917−). In: Roger K. Newman: The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law. Yale University Press, New Haven 2009, ISBN 0-300-11300-5 , pp. 261/262
• Biographical Note. Louis Henkin, born November 11, 1917. In: Recueil des cours (Académie de droit international). Volume 216. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague 1990, ISBN 0-7923-1048-9 , pp. 17/18
• William Grimes: Louis Henkin, Leader in Field of Human Rights Law, Dies at 92. In: The New York Times . Edition of October 17, 2010, p. A28

Web links

• ASIL Presidents: Louis Henkin short biography (English, with picture)