40th Anniversary - Memories of the Centre 1983 - 2023

Many thanks in advance for sharing your memories and recollections of your association with the Centre.

"I remember very vividly the lectures and seminars i attended at the Lauterpacht Centre, especially during the directorship of James Crawford. It's great to see how enormously the Centre has grown since then! A big well done to all those that have served at the Centre in once capacity or the other over the years. I wish the Lauterpacht Centre more impactful years as it continues to promote research in the field of international law over the next 40 years!"

(Dr Oluwole Kunuji, University of Toronto, Canada)

"Not generally known is the role of the Centre in assisting the production of the UK Ministry of Defence Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict. In preparation for the ratification by the UK of the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, I, as a Colonel in Army Legal Services, was given a six-month resident Fellowship at the Centre in 1994 to revise and rewrite an earlier draft of the proposed Manual, then a single-Service production. My Academic Consultant was Christopher Greenwood, then at Magdalene. Between us, we produced a fresh draft which subsequently was revised again when ratification was delayed until 1998. The final product was published in 2004. The link with the Centre is particularly apt as the famous 1958 volume, The Law of War on Land being Part III of the Manual of Military Law, was written by Sir Hersch Lauterpacht in collaboration with Colonel (later Professor) Gerald Draper."

(Charles, Garraway, Formerly Army Legal Services)

"Although I have only visited the Centre I go back a long way with Eli. He was the initial supervisor of my successful Ph.D thesis. Many years later I appeared before him as house counsel in World Bank Tribunal proceedings. My Tutor at Jesus, Robbie Jennings, had suggested I go see Eli about a thesis topic. When Eli left to go to Australia Derek Bowett became my supervisor. Clive Parry chaired my thesis examination panel. So I was fortunate enough to interact with and learn from Cambridge’s very best international lawyers!"

(Dr William T. Onorato, Former Legal Adviser, Energy, The World Bank)

"Professor Sir Elihu Lauterpacht was the inspiration for all that I have done as a lawyer and law professor. He was always so supportive, giving me a first in his class on public international law, and generously writing the Foreword to my work, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LAW. I remember sitting in his office (that was the antecedent to the Lauterpacht Centre) and listening to his comments, later published, that my work was an "important attempt to map the contours of the subject of development law by someone who combines the discipline of an academic with the insight of a practitioner actively engaged in the field."

When Eli gifted his entire law book collection to Gray's Inn after his passing, I idly searched for my name in the index and to my utter surprise, found three of of my books listed! I had diligently been sending my publications to Eli but never dreaming that he would value them as he did. However, my series of four books where his foreword appeared, including one edition where the foreword was published posthumously, were not among Eli's collection of law books. I inquired of the Gray's Inn archivist whether my 4-book series could be added to the collection which was readily done. So, Eli blessed me even after his passing.

But perhaps most moving to me was when Lady Catherine informed me that Eli read the children's book that I wrote, and kept it in his office. The book moved around his office, indicating that he was reading it at different spots. Eli's lovely note to me said simply that he was waiting to read the stories to his grandson, Max, when Max was a little older. Eli's generosity, wisdom, and insight will continue to move me and inform whatever I may do in the future. I am deeply humbled and grateful for the rare privilege of being Eli's student, in law and in life."

(Rumu Sarkar, Case Western Reserve University School of Law)