LEGAL COUNSEL ACCEPTS, ON BEHALF OF SECRETARY-GENERAL, INAUGURAL COPY OF `PERSPECTIVES ON INTERNATIONAL LAW'

Press Release
SG/2019
L/2746

LEGAL COUNSEL ACCEPTS, ON BEHALF OF SECRETARY-GENERAL, INAUGURAL COPY OF `PERSPECTIVES ON INTERNATIONAL LAW'

The Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Hans Corell, accepted today, on behalf of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the inaugural copy of Perspectives on International Law, which was published as a contribution to the United Nations Decade of International Law, as well as to the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. In accepting the book for the Secretary-General, the Legal Counsel stated that he was particularly pleased to do so, since the book had been written by leading international legal scholars and dedicated to the late Judge Manfred Lachs, who was a giant in the field of international law.

The book's editor, the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs and Deputy to the Director-General, United Nations Office at Vienna, Nandasiri Jasentuliyana, in making the presentation, thanked the Secretary-General for having personally written the foreword to the book. The book is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge Manfred Lachs of the International Court of Justice and former Ambassador of Poland to the United Nations, who had been a close friend of the Secretary-General and of the United Nations. The volume consists of chapters contributed by distinguished internationally known legal scholars and reflects various perspectives on the theory and practice of International Law, the United Nations, the World Court, and space Law.

Present at the ceremony was one of the contributors to the book, Ambassador of Egypt to the United Nations, Nabil Elaraby. In his remarks, Mr. Elaraby spoke of the uniqueness of Judge Lach, in that he would always encourage young lawyers. Mr. Elaraby recalled that when he arrived at the United Nations some 35 years ago, Judge Lachs was Chairman of the Outer Space Committee and unstintingly helped him. Another contributor to the book, Professor Edward McWhinney of Canada, presented to the Legal Counsel, for transmittal to the Secretary-General, the book Legal Biography of Judge Lachs.

In the foreword to the book, the Secretary-General pays tribute to Manfred Lachs, recalling his deep attachment to the United Nations, and the many years he spent upholding the primacy of international law in the General

Assembly, as the Chairman of the Sixth Committee and of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and later on in the International Court of Justice, where he spent the last 26 years of his career. The contribution of Judge Lachs to international law, the Secretary- General notes, has been recognized both for its subtlety and erudition, as well as for the concern he demonstrated throughout his career to improving procedures and, in particular, the relations between the World Court and other organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General concludes his tribute by observing that even today, in his work as the head of the United Nations, he still thinks of those moments when in his presence Manfred Lachs envisioned a more just, more equitable and more democratic world.

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