Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:35:16.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Taming the states: the American Law Institute and the ‘Statement of essential human rights’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2012

Hanne Hagtvedt Vik
Hanne Hagtvedt Vik*
Affiliation:
University of Oslo, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, P.O. Box 1008 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As the Second World War unfolded and became global, intellectuals of various backgrounds turned their minds to the problems of peace. Internal persecution bred external aggression, some believed. States had to be tamed. Such reasoning led the American Law Institute (ALI) to try to draft a globally acceptable bill of rights. Although originating in the USA, the project was essentially a transnational one. The ‘Statement of essential human rights’ became the most elaborate code created up to that point, in both scope and detail. Completed in the early winter of 1944, it was promoted by the Panamanian delegation to the 1945 San Francisco Conference, and used extensively by the UN Commission on Human Rights. Refuting suggestions that human rights originated in the 1970s, the ALI project reveals the great depth of the transnational conversation on human rights during the early 1940s, and even before.

Keywords

human rightsInternational Labour Organizationinternational lawSecond World War
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 461 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Helge Pharo, Paul Gordon Lauren, Jay Winter, Øyvind Tønnesson, Kjersti Brathagen, Daniel Maul, the editors and three anonymous reviewers, and colleagues at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and the Forum for Contemporary History, University of Oslo.

References

1 University of Pennsylvania Law School (henceforth UPL), Biddle Law Library, American Law Institute Papers (henceforth ALI), 6051, 24, ‘International Bill of Rights project, memorandum for statement at opening meeting of advisers, January 8 and 9’, 5 January 1944.

2 Cassese, Antonio, International law, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005Google Scholar

3 Lauren, Compare Paul Gordon, The evolution of international human rights: visions seen, 3rd edition, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Simpson, A. W. Brian, Human rights and the end of empire: Britain and the genesis of the European Convention, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001Google Scholar

Wasserstrom, J. N., ‘Ideas without borders’, Journal of Global History, 4, 2009, pp. 157–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Moyn, Samuel, The last utopia: human rights in history, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2010Google Scholar

Borgwardt, Elizabeth, A new deal for the world: America's vision for human rights, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2005CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Sohn, Louis B., ‘How American international lawyers prepared for the San Francisco bill of rights’, American Journal of International Law, 89, 1995, pp. 540–553CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Sarah A. Seo. ‘A shattered dream: the American Law Institute and the drafting of the international bill of rights’, Thomas Jefferson Law Review, 30, 2007–08, pp. 179–196Google Scholar

6 Brown, Michael et al., ‘Transnational dimensions’, in Saúl Martínez Bermejo, Darina Martykánová, and Momir Samardžic, eds., Layers of power: society and institutions in Europe, Pisa: Plus-Pisa University Press, 2010, pp. 253–258Google Scholar

7 UPL, ALI, 6054, 44, ‘Report to the Council of the Institute and Statement of Essential Human Rights by a committee of advisers, representing the principal cultures of the world’, 7 February 1944; UPL, Digital Collections, Council and Executive Meeting Minutes (henceforth CEMM), https://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/biddle/ali/index.cfm (consulted 30 January 2011), ALI Council, 22–25 February 1944.

8 Gelfand, Lawrence E., The inquiry: American preparations for peace, 1917–1919, New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1963Google Scholar

Kuehl, Warren F., Seeking world order: the United States and international organization to 1920, Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1969, pp. 256Google Scholar

Marchand, C. Roland, The American peace movement and social reform, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972, pp. 169–171Google Scholar

9 UPL, CEMM, ALI Council, 24–27 February 1942, p. 28.

10 Lewis, W. D., ‘An international bill of rights’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 85, 1942, p. 445Google Scholar

11 Goodrich, Herbert F. and Wolkin, Paul A., The story of the American Law Institute, 1923–1961, St Paul, MN: American Law Institute Publishers, 1961Google Scholar

Franklin, Mitchell, ‘The historic function of the American Law Institute: restatement as transitional to codification’, Harvard Law Review, 47, 1934, pp. 1367–1394CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Hull, Nathalie E. H., ‘Restatement and reform: a new perspective on the origins of the American Law Institute’, Law and History Review, 8, 1990, pp. 55–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 UPL, ALI, 6051, 27, Minutes of the special subcommittee, 10–12 December 1943, p. 1. See also UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 19 December 1942, pp. 38 ff.

13 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, August 29–30, 1941, pp. 6–7.

14 Simpson, Human rights, pp. 177–183Google Scholar

Lauren, Evolution, pp. 137–160Google Scholar

Anderson, Carol, Eyes off the prize: the United Nations and the struggle for human rights, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 16–17Google Scholar

15 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 1 November 1941, p. 14.

16 UPL, CEMM, ALI Council, 24–27 February 1942, pp. 20.

17 UPL, ALI, 6051, 11, ‘Memorandum in re Project model international bill of rights’, 6 December 1941.

18 UPL, ALI, 6052, 1, ‘Civil and criminal justice. Matter for conference, W. D. Lewis, W. A. Seavey, W. Sanders. October 14–15, 1941. Cambridge, Massachusetts’.

19 UPL, ALI, 6051, 11, ‘Memorandum in re Project model international bill of rights’, 6 December 1941.

20 Ibid.

21 UPL, ALI, 6054, 1, W. D. Lewis to J. H. Willits of the Rockefeller Foundation, 14 January 1942; 6052, 49, W. D. Lewis to W. A. Seavey, 16 January 1942; 6052, 46, W. D. Lewis to G. W. Pepper, 16 January 1942.

22 Rockefeller Archive Center (henceforth RAC), Rockefeller Foundation, 111 2, 10, 93–9, memos and contribution appeals, 1938–41.

23 UPL, CEMM, P. C. Jessup to W. D. Lewis, 8 May 1942, in Executive Committee, 20 June 1942.

24 B. C. Smith to W. D. Lewis, 12 June 1942, in ibid.; RAC, Commonwealth Fund, 18.1 Grants, 86, letters between Lewis and Smith, May–June 1942.

25 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 20 June 1942, pp. 23–4.

26 Ibid.; UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 31 October 1942, p. 24; ALI, 6053, 33, W. D. Lewis to W. Sanders, 12 August 1942.

27 UPL, CEMM, ALI Council, 24–27 February 1942, p. 28.

28 Library of Congress, Papers of P.C. Jessup (henceforth LC, PCJ), 80, P. C. Jessup to P. E. Corbett, 17 July 1942 and P. E. Corbett to P. C. Jessup, 13 October 1942.

29 Kostal, Rande W., ‘The alchemy of occupation: Karl Loewenstein and the legal reconstruction of Germany, 1945–1946’, Law & History Review 29, 1, 2011, pp. 1–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Balinska, Marta, A life for humanity: Ludwik Rachman, 1881–1965, Budapest: CEU Press, 1998Google Scholar

31 UPL, ALI, 6053, 1, W. D. Lewis to A. P. Sereni, 28 December 1943, and A. P. Sereni to W. D. Lewis, 10 January 1944.

32 UPL, ALI, 6052, 30, W. D. Lewis to G. M. Barakat, 23 December 1943.

33 Tabandeh, Sultanhussein, A Muslim commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, London: F. T. Goulding, 1970Google Scholar

Afshari, Reza, ‘An essay on Islamic cultural relativism in the discourse of human rights’, Human Rights Quarterly, 16, 1994, pp. 235–276CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Waltz, Susan E., ‘Universal human rights: the contribution of Muslim states’, Human Rights Quarterly, 26, 2004, pp. 799–844CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Simpson, Human rights, pp. 188–189Google Scholar

35 Lauren, Evolution, pp. 156–159Google Scholar

Simpson, Human rights, pp. 185–187Google Scholar

36 Simpson, Human rights, p. 192Google Scholar

37 Vik, ‘American legal community’, esp. pp. 49 and 61 ff.

38 Vik, ‘The American legal community’, p. 60ffGoogle Scholar

39 Vik, ‘The American legal community’, p. 345Google Scholar

40 Burgers, J. H., ‘The road to San Francisco: the revival of the human rights idea in the twentieth century’, Human Rights Quarterly, 19, 1997, pp. 702–723Google Scholar

Lauren, Evolution, pp. 109Google Scholar

41 UPL, ALI, 6052, 3, ‘Bibliographical notes for the Study of an International Bill of Rights by Percy E. Corbett’ (a handwritten note by Lewis reveals that the date was 22 August 1942); 31, W. D. Lewis to P. C. Corbett, 3 October 1942.

42 UPL, ALI, 6053, 33, W. D. Lewis to W. Sanders, 24 December 1942; Box 6052, Item 39, letter W. D. Lewis to C. W. Jenks, 9 December 1942 and C. W. Jenks to W. D. Lewis, 19 May 1944; CURBML, CEIP, 59, Memorandum for private circulation, C. Wilfred Jenks, ‘Legal studies bearing upon the aspects of the post-war settlement of interest to the International Labour Organization’, p. 2. The ILO collection was published as International Labour Office, Constitutional provisions concerning social and economic policy, Montreal, 1944.

43 Glendon, Mary Ann, ‘Rights in twentieth century constitutions’, University of Chicago Law Review, 59, 1992, pp. 519–538CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 UPL, ALI, 6051, 21, ‘Tentative agenda with foreword and plan of work’, 1 October 1942.

45 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 31 October 1942, p. 28.

46 UPL, ALI, 6052, 20, Manley O. Hudson, ‘Points for discussion’, 4 November 1942; First plenary conference, pp. 3–6, 10, 21, 31, 33–4, 75–7. See also 6054, 20, M. O. Hudson to W. D. Lewis, 12 January 1943.

47 NARA, RG 59, Entry 498, Lot files of Harley A. Notter, Advisory Committee on Post-War Foreign Relations, Sub-Committee on Legal Problems (henceforth Entry 498), 72, L Document 45, ‘Report of session of the American Law Institute for discussion of international bill of rights project’, 10 November 1942.

48 UPL, ALI, 6052, 29, R. J. Alfaro to W. D. Lewis, 6 October 1942. Rabel made a similar observation: First plenary conference, pp. 8–9.

49 First plenary conference, p. 82.

50 Ibid., p. 1.

51 UPL, ALI, 6052, 3, ‘Notes by Director in re matters for consideration at preliminary conference’, pp. 2–3.

52 UPL, ALI, 6052, 3, W. Sanders, ‘Annex, reformulation of question V of “Notes by Director in re matters for consideration by preliminary conference”’. Sanders also presented a tentative list of rights for consideration at the preliminary conference: ibid., ‘Annex II, List of individual rights to serve as a tentative basis of discussion in the preliminary conference’.

53 UPL, ALI, 6051, 21, Note III to the tentative agenda, 1 October 1942 (rights rephrased to accommodate comparisons and save space).

54 UPL, ALI, 6052, 3, ‘Statement of Mr. Percy Corbett in answer to V of Director's notes on a bill of rights project’.

55 UPL, ALI, 6051, 12, ‘Statement of the project to draft an international bill of rights’, 2 April 1942. See also UPL, CEMM, ALI Council, 24–27 February 1942, p. 30.

56 Sohn, ‘American international lawyers’, pp. 546–553Google Scholar

Whelan, Daniel J. and Donnelly, Jack, ‘The West, economic and social rights, and the global human rights regime: setting the record straight’, Human Rights Quarterly, 29, 2007, pp. 908–949CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 First plenary conference, pp. 43–4.

58 Ibid., pp. 13–25.

59 Ibid., pp. 38–58; UPL, ALI, 6051, 22, Minutes of the second conference of the advisers, 4–6 March 1943 (henceforth Second plenary conference), pp. 2–13.

60 UPL, ALI, 6054, 10, Report of subcommittee on procedural rights, 10 February 1943.

61 Second plenary conference, pp. 3–5.

62 First plenary conference, pp. 46–53.

63 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 19 December 1942, p. 40.

64 UPL, CEMM, ALI Council, February 24–27, p. 28.

65 On minority treaties, see Mark Mazower, ‘The strange triumph of human rights, 1933–1950’, Historical Journal, 47, 2004, pp. 379–98.

66 First plenary conference, pp. 69–75.

67 Ibid. This was Article III of the 1929 declaration: see Sohn, ‘American international lawyers’, p. 546.

68 Wyman, David S., The abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945, New York and London: The New Press, 2007, pp. 42Google Scholar

G. Daniel Cohen, ‘The Holocaust and the “human rights revolution”: a reassessment’, in Akira Iriye, Pertra Goedde, and William I. Hitchcock, The human rights revolution: an international history, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 53–72Google Scholar

Duranti, Marco, ‘The Holocaust, the legacy of 1989, and the birth of international human rights law: revisiting the foundation myth’, Journal of Genocide Research, 14, 2, pp. 159–186Google Scholar

69 First plenary conference, pp. 100–3.

70 UPL, ALI, 6051, 23, Minutes of the third conference of the advisers, 11–13 June 1943 (henceforth Third plenary conference), pp. 23–4.

71 Ibid., pp. 23–7.

72 Ibid., p. 7.

73 Brucken, ‘Uncertain crusade’, pp. 34 ffGoogle Scholar

Vik ‘American legal community’, pp. 75 ffGoogle Scholar

74 UPL, ALI, 6052, 42, K. Loewenstein to W. D. Lewis, 22 September 1942; First plenary conference, p. 8.

75 UPL, ALI, 6051, 11, ‘Memorandum in re Project model international bill of rights’, 6 December 1941.

76 First plenary conference, pp. 12, 35.

77 UPL, ALI, 6054, 13, Bill on political rights, Karl Loewenstein, Reporter, 17 February 1943. The subcommittee had met on 20 December 1942: see 6051, 21, Minutes of the subcommittee on political rights. See also 6052, 42, K. Loewenstein to W. D. Lewis, 9 February 1943; and 6052, 45, ‘Comments of John E. Mulder on Dr. Loewenstein's bill of political rights’, 16 February 1943.

78 UPL, ALI, 6054, 13, Bill on political rights, Karl Loewenstein, Reporter, 17 February 1943.

79 See Second plenary conference, p. 60; also Third plenary conference, pp. 24–5.

80 Third plenary conference, p. 7.

81 Second plenary conference, pp. 54–5. See also First plenary conference, esp. pp. 8–9, 36.

82 Divine, Robert A., Roosevelt and World War II, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969, pp. 77–91Google Scholar

Blum, John Morton, V was for victory: politics and culture during World War II, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976, pp. 316–317Google Scholar

Gaddis, John Lewis, George F. Kennan: an American life, New York: Penguin Press, 2011, pp. 79Google Scholar

83 UPL, ALI, 6053, 33, W. D. Lewis to W. Sanders, 29 March 1943.

84 First plenary conference, pp. 25–32.

85 Third plenary conference, p. 60.

86 Ibid., pp. 40–61, esp. pp. 51–3.

87 See, for example, First plenary conference, pp. 13, 21 ff, 33 ff; Third plenary conference, esp. pp. 2 ff, 55 ff.

88 Second plenary conference, p. 52.

89 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 19 December 1942, p. 40. See also UPL, ALI, 6052, 31, W. D. Lewis to P. E. Corbett, 25 November 1942.

90 Third plenary conference, p. 7.

91 UPL, ALI, 6051, 25, Minutes of the special subcommittee, 3–7 August 1943, esp. p. 17. Se also 6052, 42, Memorandum by Loewenstein, 7 October 1943; 6051, 46, Minutes, Special subcommittee, 15–17 October 1943.

92 UPL, ALI, 6051, 21, Note II to the tentative agenda.

93 First plenary conference, pp. 57–60.

94 UPL, ALI, 6052, 42, Memorandum, Loewenstein, 15 October 1942, pp. 7–10; First plenary conference, p. 7.

95 First plenary conference, p. 96.

96 Ibid., p. 98.

97 Ibid., pp. 64–5. See also UPL, ALI, 6051, 21, Hudson note (undated, probably written during the conference).

98 First plenary conference, p. 61.

99 UPL, ALI, 6053, 33, W. Sanders to W. D. Lewis, 18 December 1942. For the conference proceedings, see World Citizens Association, World's destiny.

100 UPL, ALI, 6052, 49, W. A. Seavey to W. D. Lewis, 11 November 1942.

101 UPL, CEMM, Executive Committee, 19 December 1942, p. 40; ALI, 6052, 31, W. D. Lewis to P. E. Corbett, 25 November 1942.

102 UPL, ALI, 6054, 20, Report of the subcommittee on social rights, 26 February 1943.

103 UPL, ALI, 6052, 31, P. C. Corbett to W. D. Lewis, 26 January 1943.

104 UPL, ALI, 6054, 20, Report of the subcommittee on social rights, 26 February 1943. See also Archives of the International Labour Organization, Wilfred Jenks papers, 1942 VII–XII, M. Hudson to W. Jenks, 19 January 1943 and W. D. Lewis to M. Hudson, January 1943.

105 Second plenary conference, p. 14.

106 Ibid., pp. 27–8, 37–8.

107 Ibid., pp. 19–20.

108 Sohn, ‘American international lawyers’, pp. 548–550Google Scholar

109 UPL, ALI, 6052, 49, W. A. Seavey to W. D. Lewis, 12 January 1944.

110 UPL, ALI, 6054, 44, ‘Report to the Council of the Institute and Statement of essential human rights by a Committee of Advisers, representing the principal cultures of the world’, 7 February 1944; CEMM, ALI Council, 22–25 February 1944.

111 UPL, ALI, 6054, 44, Report to the Council, 7 February 1944.

112 UPL, ALI, 6053, 7, W. A. Seavey to W. D. Lewis, 2 February 1944.

113 UPL, ALI, 5053, 7, M. O. Hudson to W. D. Lewis, 3 February 1944.

114 UPL, ALI, 6052, 47, W. D. Lewis to D. Rajchman, 9 May 1944.

115 UPL, ALI, 6052, 38, G. Husserl to W. D. Lewis, 4 February 1944.

116 UPL, ALI, 6052, 34, ‘Summary of information in re Bill of rights advisers of the American Law Institute’, attached to W. D. Lewis to K. Durant, 20 January 1943. See also 6053, 33, W. D. Lewis to W. Sanders, 24 December 1942.

117 Humphrey, John P., Human rights and the United Nations: a great adventure, Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational Publishers, 1984, pp. 31–32Google Scholar

Burgers, ‘Road to San Francisco’, p. 473Google Scholar

Lauren, Evolution, p. 153Google Scholar

Morsink, Johannes, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: origins, drafting and intent, Philadelphia, PA: University of Philadelphia Press, 1999, pp. 6Google Scholar