Thomas M. Franck

Thomas Martin Franck (born  July 14, 1931 in Berlin ; †  May 27, 2009 in Manhattan ) was an American lawyer who worked in the field of international law . From 1957 to 2002 he was professor at New York University and from 1998 to 2000 as President of the American Society for International Law , which awarded him the Manley O. Hudson Medal for his services and made him Honorary President. In addition, he was accepted into the Institut de Droit international and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Life

Thomas Franck was born in Berlin in 1931 and emigrated with his parents in 1938, shortly before the Reichskristallnacht , first to Switzerland and six months later to Canada . He obtained at the University of British Columbia in 1952 a bachelor's degree and a year later a Bachelor of Laws and at the Harvard University in 1954 an LL.M. and 1959, the Promotion . From 1954 he served as an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln . Three years later he moved to a position as associate professor at New York University , where he was appointed full professor in 1962 and Murry and Ida Becker professor in 1988 and worked until his retirement in 2002. He also taught as a visiting professor at various universities and in 1993 as a lecturer at the Hague Academy for International Law . In the course of his career he has written over 30 monographic works.

During the decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, Thomas Franck worked in several African countries, including what is now Tanzania , Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone , in drafting the respective constitutions . He also served as legal advisor to the governments of Kenya , the Republic of Mauritius , the Solomon Islands , El Salvador and Chad . From 1998 to 2000 he served as President of the American Society for International Law and from 1984 to 1993 as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law . At the International Court of Justice in The Hague , he from 1995 to 2007 in a proceeding relating to the applicability of the Genocide Convention to the Srebrenica massacre as a representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as from 1998 to 2002 a case to the proposal of Indonesia as ad hoc judge.

Thomas Franck died in Manhattan in 2009 as a result of prostate cancer .

Awards

Thomas Franck received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and 1982 and the Certificate of Merit from the American Society for International Law in 1981, 1986, 1994 and 1996 for an outstanding work published in the previous year . In addition, he was honored by the Society with its highest honor, the Manley O. Hudson Medal , in 2003 and was named Honorary President in 2009.

He received the John E. Read Medal from the Canadian Council on International Law in 1994 . From 1993 he was a member of the Institut de Droit international and from 2003 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The University of British Columbia, the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the University of Glasgow awarded him honorary doctorates . At New York University was awarded the Thomas M. Franck Fellowship in International Law a scholarship named after him.

Works (selection)

• United States Foreign Relations Law: Documents and Sources. New York and London, 1980–1984
• Nation Against Nation - What Happened to the UN Dream and What the US Can Do About It. New York 1985
• Political Questions / Judicial Answers: Does the Rule of Law Apply to Foreign Affairs? Princeton 1992
• Fairness in International Law and Institutions. New York and Oxford 1995

literature

• Biographical Note. Thomas M. Franck, born in Berlin, Germany, July 14, 1931; naturalized (United States), 1977. In: Recueil des cours (Académie de droit international). Volume 240. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Den Haag 1994, ISBN 0-79-232953-8 , pp. 17/18
• Rosalyn Higgins : Thomas M. Franck (1931-2009). In: American Journal of International Law. 103 (3) / 2009. American Society of International Law, pp. 502-509, ISSN  0002-9300
• Norman Dorsen: Thomas M. Franck. In: New York University Law Review. 84 (6) / 2009. New York University School of Law, pp. 1382-1384, ISSN  0028-7881
• Dennis Hevesi: Thomas Franck, Who Advised Countries on Law, Dies at 77 In: The New York Times . Edition of May 30, 2009, p. A12

Web links

• ASIL Presidents: Thomas Martin Franck Short biography (English, with picture)