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Oscar Schachter (1915-2003)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Extract

Among “jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law” and “most highly qualified publicists of the various nations,” no one in the second half of the twentieth century did more than Oscar Schachter to influence both the theory and the practice of international law, especially the law of the United Nations Charter. When the centennial of the American Society of International Law arrives in two years, we will have occasion to reflect on his contributions to this Journal and many other endeavors of the Society, across a long and vigorous life.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2004 

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References

1 ICJ Statute, Arts. 2, 38(l)(d).

2 37 ASIL Proc. 179 (1943).

3 John Bassett Moore and Charles Cheney Hyde, who were among the founding members of the Society, were honorary vice presidents when Schachter enrolled. Compare 1 ASIL Proc. 9, 73 (1907)Google Scholar, with 37 ASIL Proc. at v (1943)Google Scholar (rosters of members, officers, and speakers reflecting this generational continuity). Moore and Hyde had both held the Hamilton Fish Professorship of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia University, which became Schachter’s chair from 1978, after he returned to his alma mater as a faculty member.

4 He thus did not study international law at Columbia, where he inclined toward a New Deal career. This and other aspects of Schachter’s development are documented in an interview conducted by Thomas G. Weiss in 2001 for the UN Intellectual History Project [hereinafter UNIHP Interview] (publication forthcoming in UNIHP Oral History Collection, City University of New York; transcript on file at Columbia Law School).

5 The emeritus designation took effect when he reached age seventy in 1985, but he never in any sense retired. He maintained a full program of professional activities until his final illness in the fall of 2003.

6 The Enforcement of International Judicial and Arbitral Decisions Against States, 54 AJIL 1 (1960).Google Scholar

7 The Development of International Law Through the Legal Opinions of the United Nations Secretariat, 1948 Brit. Y.B. Int’l L. 91.Google Scholar

8 The International Official in a Divided World, 53 ASIL Proc. 344 (1959).Google Scholar

9 53 ASIL Proc. at 349.

10 See, e.g., The Question of Treaty Reservations at the 1959 General Assembly, 54 AJIL 372 (1960)Google Scholar; The Twilight Existence of Nonbinding International Agreements, 71 AJIL 296 (1977).Google Scholar

11 See text at notes 28–36 infra.

12 See, e.g., The Obligation of the Parties to Give Effect to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 73 AJIL1 462 (1979)Google Scholar; Human Dignity as a Normative Concept, 77 AJIL 848 (1983).Google Scholar

13 Compensation for Expropriation, 78 AJIL 121 (1984)Google Scholar; What Price Expropriation? Compensation Cases—Leading and Misleading, 79 AJIL 420 (1985).Google Scholar

14 Dispute Settlement and Countermeasures in the International Law Commission, 88 AJIL 471 (1994)Google Scholar.

15 See, e.g., The Quasi-Judicial Role of the Security Council and the General Assembly, 58 AJIL 960 (1964)Google Scholar; United Nations Law, 88 AJIL 1 (1994)Google Scholar; see also The International Official in a Divided World, note 8 supra; The Future of the United Nations, note 16 infra, and various articles on UN peacekeeping and other UN-authorized military operations cited in notes 21–36.

16 His presidential address to the annual meeting in 1970, The Future of the United Nations, was immediately followed by the address of the incumbent secretary of state, William P. Rogers, in a tradition from the days of Elihu Root that unfortunately lapsed after Schachter’s presidency. 64 ASIL Proc. 277 (Schachter address), 285 (Rogers address) (1970).

17 Metaphors and Realism in International Law, 96 ASIL Proc. 268-69 (2002)Google Scholar (remarks at interdisciplinary panel entitled “Realism and Legalism”).

18 A Conversation with Oscar Schachter, 91 ASIL Proc. 343 (1997)Google Scholar (transcript of interview by Brigitte Stern) [hereinafter Conversation]. For extracts illustrative of his wit, see text at notes 39, 48 infra.

19 72 Nw. U.L. Rev. 217 (1977).

20 95 ASIL Proc. 18 (2001)Google Scholar (summary of interview conducted by Edith Brown Weiss).

21 Miller, E. M. (pseudonym for O. Schachter), Legal Aspects of the United Nations Action in the Congo, 55 AJIL 1 (1961)Google Scholar [hereinafter Legal Aspects].

22 Letter from Oscar Schachter to Leo Gross (Oct. 31, 1960) (on file at Columbia Law School).

23 See, e.g., The International Official in a Divided World, note 8 supra; Legal Issues at the United Nations, 1960-61 Ann. Rev. UN Aff. 142, 148–53.Google Scholar

24 The International Civil Servant in Law and in Fact: A Lecture Delivered to Congregation on 30 may 961 by Dag Hammarskjōld, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1961)Google Scholar. On Schachter’s authorship of Hammarskjold’s Oxford lecture (and his later views on positions expressed therein), see Conversation, note 18 supra, at 353.

25 In the Congo case, the controversy concerned interpretation of the mandate of a peacekeeping force previously established by the Security Council itself—an element not present in the recent Iraq situation.

26 Legal Aspects, note 21 supra, at 13–15, 20–23; see also Preventing the Internationalization of Internal Conflict: A Legal Analysis ofthe UN. Congo Experience, 57 ASIL Proc. 216 (1963).Google Scholar

27 Legal Aspects, note 21 supra, at 1, 28. A year later, following Hammarskjöld’s sudden death in the Congo, Schachter opened the January 1962 issue of the Journal with a tribute affirming Hammarskjöld’s deep commitment to “law as a source and basis of policy.” Dag Hammarskjold and the Relation of Law to Politics, 56 AJIL 1, 2 (1962).

28 The Right of States to Use Armed Force, 82 Mich. L. Rev. 1620 (1984).Google Scholar

29 In Defense of International Rules on the Use of Force, 53 U. Chi. L. Rev. 113 (1986).Google Scholar

30 Disputes Involving the Use of Force, in The International Court of Justice at a Crossroads 223 (Lori Fisler, Damrosched., 1987).Google Scholar

31 The Legality of Pro-Democratic Invasion, 78 AJIL 645 (1984)Google Scholar (responding to Reisman, W. Michael, Coercion and Self-Determination: Construing Charter Article 2(4), 78 AJIL 642 (1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

32 Self-Defense and the Rule of Law, 83 AJIL 259 (1989).Google Scholar

33 United Nations Law in the Gulf Conflict, 85 AJIL 452 (1991)Google Scholar; see also Authorized Uses of Force by the United Nations and Regional Organizations, in Law and Force in the New International Order 65 (Lori Fisler, Damrosch & David, J. Scheffer eds., 1991).Google Scholar

34 United Nations Collective Security: Its Once and Future Role, in The Korean War in Retrospect: Lessons for the Future 119 (Daniel, J. Meador ed., 1998).Google Scholar

35 Berlin, Isaiah, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History 1 (1953).Google Scholar

36 Authorized Uses of Force by the United Nations and Regional Organizations, supra note 33, at 65.

37 International Law in Theory and Practice (1991)Google Scholar [hereinafter Theory and Practice] . The book is a revised and updated version of Schachter’s lectures, Hague, International Law in Theory and Practice: General Course in Public International Law, 178 Recueil Des Cours 11 (1982 V).Google Scholar

38 Thomas, M. Franck, Review Essay: The Case of the Vanishing Treatises, 81 AJIL 763, 771 (1987)Google Scholar.

39 Theory and Practice, note 37 supra, at 19. For an earlier retelling of the same story, see The Place of Policy in International Law, 2 Ga. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 5, 56 (1971)Google Scholar, and for a later one, see Conversation, note 18 supra, at 345 (ending with Schachter’s recollection that he muttered to La Guardia, “I’m probably a hot lawyer in the New Deal pattern.”). More than a few of Schachter’s colleagues recall this story as if the “hot lawyer” side clearly won out, whereas Schachter’s own presentations of it were nuanced in their appreciation of a necessary duality in the lawyer’s role.

40 Theory and Practice, note 37 supra, at 23 (the quoted phrase is the subheading for a section on this theme).

41 Schachter’s remarks at the panel discussion on McDougal’s Jurisprudence: Utility, Influence, Controversy, 79 ASIL Proc. 266-73 (1985)Google Scholar, contain a concise statement of both commonalities and differences between Schachter and McDougal, as well as trenchant criticisms of some of McDougal’s positions.

42 Conversation, note 18 supra, at 347.

43 Theory and Practice, note 37 supra, at 46.

44 For reminiscences of a more personal sort, see my tribute and those of other colleagues, forthcoming from the Columbia Law Review and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law in spring 2004. Louis Henkin’s recollection of their collaborations over more than half a century, including their joint service for six years at the helm of this Journal, will appear at 104 Colum. L. Rev. (2004).

45 For Schachter’s writings illustrative of his thinking relevant to the “monist-dualist” debate (and more generally on uses of international law in relation to constitutional law), see The Charter and the Constitution, 4 Vand. L. Rev. 643 (1951)Google Scholar (supporting a California court decision that had used Charter principles to invalidate a discriminatory state law). As evidenced by the Agora: The United States Constitution and International Law in the present issue of the Journal, the controversy persists, more than half a century after Schachter first addressed it in print. On criticism of his article from right-wing circles in the United States, see UNIHP Interview, note 4 supra, at 18–19.

46 Cf. Charlesworth, Hilary, Alienating Oscar? Feminist Analysis of International Law, in Reconceiving Reality: Women and International Law 1, 15 n. 2 (Dorinda, G. Dallmeyer ed., 1993)Google Scholar (anecdote confirming that an early conference on feminism and international law, far from “alienating Oscar,” had engaged his curiosity and spurred his interest in and support for feminist projects).

47 International Law: Cases and Materials (Lori Fisler, Damrosch, Henkin, Louis, Richard, Crawford Pugh, Schachter, Oscar, & Smit, Hans eds., 4th ed. 2001) (reviewed by David, J. Bederman in this issue at p. 200).Google Scholar

48 Conversation, note 18 supra, at 344.