Professor Louis Sohn dies at 92

Professor Louis B. Sohn died on Wednesday, June 7. He was 92. Professor Sohn was one of the most well-known American (by way of Poland) international lawyers of his generation – over the years, he taught, wrote about, and practiced international law in a wide variety of areas, including human rights, arms control, the environment, and the law of the sea. In awarding him its first Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Development of International Environmental Law in 2003, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) summed up his career as follows:

Professor Sohn was the Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard University for thirty-five years; and he subsequently taught at the University of Georgia and George Washington University law school, where he still does research. In addition to having authored many germinal publications about international environmental law, Professor Sohn was an influential participant in the 1945 San Francisco Conference drafting the United Nations Charter (particularly regarding the human rights aspects) and the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. He authored the environmental sections of the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. Professor Sohn has held leadership positions in many organizations, including being President of the American Society of International Law and Chair of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association.

In addition, Professor Sohn served as the first Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department. He was also the 1996 recipient of the Manley O. Hudson medal from the American Society of International Law. With his passing, we have lost one of the true luminaries who shaped international law in the aftermath of World War II.