Lauterpacht Centre 25th Anniversary Celebrations: 'The Function of Law in the International Community' Conference
11 and 12 July 2008
The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law celebrated its 25th anniversary on 11 and 12 July 2008.
More than 250 international law scholars, practitioners and friends of the Centre came to Cambridge to celebrate the occasion under the general theme of 'The Function of Law in the International Community', a title specifically chosen to mark the 75th anniversary of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht's seminal work. The celebrations included conference sessions at the Faculty of Law, an anniversary dinner at Trinity College and a barbeque reception at the Lauterpacht Centre. The Centre's anniversary also coincided with the 80th birthday of its founder, Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, who was honoured at the dinner at Trinity College where Dame Rosalyn Higgins and President Stephen Schwebel were among the guest speakers.
The conference programme opened with a formal paper by Professor Martti Koskenniemi on The Function of Law in the International Community'. This was followed by a Plenary Session chaired by Professor James Crawford and featuring Professor Vaughan Lowe, Professor Michael Reisman and Sir Michael Wood. Saturday morning consisted of six interest group discussion sessions on various aspects of international law: the international judicial function, the use of force, investment arbitration, the Lauterpacht Tradition, international law in domestic courts and international criminal jurisdictions. The afternoon sessions summarised the debate from each group. Dr Charlotte Ku closed the conference with a presentation on the future of the Centre.
