When the late Sir Hersch Lauterpacht
became a member of the International Court of
Justice in February, 1955 (a position he was to
fill effectively for barely five years, until the
fall of 1959), he went to The Hague with some
thirty years of devoted study and practice of
international law behind him. As teacher and
student of international law, as a most highly
qualified publicist (in the words of Article 38(1)
(d) of the Statute of the Court) of recognized
universal authority, he had devoted himself both
to the law in general and in particular to the
problems of the judicial settlement of
international disputes, whether by the Permanent
Court of International Justice and its present-day
successor, the International Court of Justice, or
by ad hoc arbitration
tribunals. Indeed, his writings as a whole display
a rare preoccupation with the entire philosophy
and the practical problems of the judicial
settlement of international disputes, together
with a deep understanding of its limitations and a
satisfying freedom both from putting forward
extravagant claims in its behalf and from purely
theoretical speculations.