Koskenniemi’s Lauterpacht: A ‘Gentle Civilizer’?

Abstract Hersch Lauterpacht’s normative project has been subject to a number of excellent studies in the past – most notably by Martti Koskenniemi. The central image of the latter’s ‘Lauterpacht’ is, famously, that of a backward-looking thinker: Lauterpacht is portrayed as a ‘natural lawyer’ who nostalgically looks back into the 19th century as the last representative of a ‘Victorian tradition’ in international law. This article wishes to critique and challenge this influential intellectual portrait. In order to do this, it revisits Lauterpacht’s rich academic oeuvre in three sections. Section 2 begins with a reconstruction of Lauterpacht’s understanding of the judicial function – a function on which much of Koskenniemi’s Lauterpacht hinges. Section 3 explores the legislative function within Lauterpacht’s international legal order, while section 4, subsequently, investigates the ‘function’ given to natural law in Lauterpacht’s normative project. Section 5, finally, offers a critical challenge to Koskenniemi’s ‘Lauterpacht’ and re-evaluates the place that he should be given within the history of 20th-century international law. A conclusion contends that Lauterpacht is best characterized as a utopian international federalist, whose supranational legacy has largely remained unredeemed.