The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv held events to commemorate Hersch Lauterpacht, a distinguished international lawyer, a professor at the University of Cambridge, a judge at the International Court of Justice, the founder of contemporary international human rights law and a student at the University of Lviv (1915-1918).
On October 6, 2017 a memorial plaque was officially unveiled in Zhovkva, Lauterpacht’s home town, to mark the 120th anniversary of his birth. The plaque was installed on the building of the district court.
“Lviv University is running a major project to return well-known names of the world scholars who studied in Lviv to the scientific and historical memory. One of such prominent figures is Hersch Lauterpacht, the author of the concept of the importance of the individual in international law and a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. The Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge is named after him. The young scientists of our University investigated his theoretical heritage and thus emerged an idea to immortalize the memory of this extraordinary lawyer,” stated the Dean of the Faculty of International Relations Markiyan Malskyy.
Moreover, the international conference “Legal Concepts of Hersch Lauterpacht in the Theory and Practice of International Law” was held in Zhovkva.
The participants emphasized that Lauterpacht’s name is often unjustly forgotten and outlined his contribution to the development of various areas of international law in their speeches, in particular in the reports by the following scholars: Prof. Adam Redzik (“The Formation and Creative Path of Hersch Lauterpacht as an International Lawyer”), Prof. Olha Butkevych (“Hersch Lauterpacht’s Contribution to the Development of the Theory of International Law”), Prof. Petro Rabinovych (“The Concepts of Human Rights Protection in the Works by Hersch Lauterpacht”), Dr. Milena Ingielewicz-Citak (“Hersch Lauterpacht’s Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Doctrine of International Recognition”), Prof. Mykola Pashkovskyi (“The Concept of International Crime in the Works by Hersch Lauterpacht”).
The organizers of the conference point out that the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv by maintaining traditions of the outstanding scholars and researchers who studied and worked at the University continues to develop and increase their scientific heritage.