Description
Georg Schwarzenberger bitterly engaged with Hersch Lauterpacht due to personal reasons and on questions of international law. He saw Lauterpacht as utopian and romantic, and was viewed as engaged in power politics in turn. The disagreements of these two jurists, which affected their professional and personal lives, stand out due to how neither dismissed the political nature of international law. This paper reexamines Georg Schwarzenberger’s and Hersch Lauterpacht’s thought. It contrasts their positions on international law and on the jurisprudence of the law, highlighting their differences. The paper does this through an exploration of Schwarzenberger’s and Lauterpacht’s works and of relevant archival material, which allows it to explore their contentious and strained relationship. Through these materials, the paper analyses these jurist’s differing positions on the politics of international law and its power, reach, and effectiveness. It proposes to rediscover the similarities and differences in the theories of these two jurists. In doing this, it highlights their differing theoretical perspectives on Realism and on the politics of international law, as well as their continued relevance today.
