Thomas Buergenthal (11 May 1934 – 29 May 2023) was a Czechoslovak-born American international lawyer, scholar, law school dean, and judge of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

(ICJ). He resigned his ICJ post as of 6 September 2010 and returned to his position at The George Washington University Law School where he was the Lobingier

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence.

Early life

Thomas Buergenthal was known as one of the youngest holocaust victims to survive places like Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, which were concentration camps. The first 11 years of his life were spent under German authority. It is known that when the Germans were pushed out by the Soviet army in January 1945, the Germans forced the victims out by marching them; it was a long journey, people began to get tired and if they stopped they were executed. Buergenthal was one of the few children to survive the three day march to Sachsenhausen, where Buergenthal would soon be liberated. His mother was liberated from a different concentration camp around the same time, though they did not find each other until 1946. His father was killed shortly before liberation in yet another camp. Buergenthal, born to German-Jewish/Polish-Jewish parents who had moved from Germany to Czechoslovakia in 1933, grew up in the Jewish ghetto of Kielce (Poland) and later in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. After the War he lived with his mother in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. On 4 December 1951, he emigrated from Germany to the United States. He studied at Bethany College in West Virginia (graduated 1957), and received his J.D. at New York University Law School in 1960, and his LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. Judge Buergenthal is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from American, European and Latin American Universities, including the University of Heidelberg in Germany, the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, the State University of New York, the American University, the University of Minnesota, and the George Washington University.

Career

Buergenthal was a specialist in international law and

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

law. Buergenthal served as a judge on the

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

from 2 March 2000 to his resignation on 6 September 2010. Prior to his election to the International Court of Justice, he was the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at The George Washington University Law School. He was Dean of Washington College of Law of

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

from 1980 to 1985, and held endowed professorships at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, SUNY/Buffalo Law School, and

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

. While at Emory, he was the director of the Human Rights Program of the Carter Center. Buergenthal served as a judge for many years, including lengthy periods on various specialized international bodies. Between 1979 and 1991, he served as a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, including a term as that court's president; from 1989 to 1994, he was a judge on the Inter-American Development Bank's Administrative Tribunal; in 1992 and 1993, he served on the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador; and from 1995 to 1999, he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Buergenthal was the author of more than a dozen books and a large number of articles on international law, human rights and comparative law subjects. He was member of a number of editorial boards of law journals, including the American Journal of International Law. He also served as a member of the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee. On 9 July 2004, Judge Buergenthal was the sole dissenter in the advisory opinion on the Israeli West Bank barrier, where the ICJ found 14-1 that the Israeli-built barrier into the occupied

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

violated international law and should be torn down. While he stated that Israeli settlements were illegal under the

Fourth Geneva Convention The Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (), more commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1 ...

and that the Palestinians had the right of self-determination, Judge Buergenthal felt that the court hadn’t looked into the question of

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...

adequately. Judge Buergenthal was a co-recipient of the 2008 Gruber Prize for Justice for his contributions to the promotion and protection of

in different parts of the world, and particularly in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. He was also a recipient of the following awards: Goler T. Butcher Medal, American Society of International Law, 1997; Manley O. Hudson Medal, American Society of International Law, 2002; Elie Wiesel Award, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, 2015; and Olympic Order, International Olympic Committee, 2015. Buergenthal strongly supported the creation of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

, Germany, and became the first President of its Advisory Council in 2014. From 2016 until his death in 2023, he served as its Honorary President. His memoir, '' A Lucky Child'', which describes his experience in various German concentration camps, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, including German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish.

Death

Buergenthal died on 29 May 2023, at the age of 89. He is survived by his wife, three sons, two step children, and ten grandchildren, of which two are lawyers.

Selected works

* * Vol. 2 Vol. 3 * * * * *, Thomas, Shelton, Stewart, 4th ed. (2009) *, 5th ed. (2013), 4th ed. (2007)

Lectures

''A Brief History of International Human Rights Law''
in th

"The Lawmaking Role of International Tribunals," Dean Fred F. Herzog Memorial Lecture, 17 October 2011, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois.Program for the Fred F. Herzog Memorial Lecture (17 October 2011).

References

External links

ICJ Biography of Thomas Buergenthal

Biographical Interview with Thomas Buergenthal
published at "Quellen zur Geschichte der Menschenrechte"
A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy
Interview with Thomas Buergenthal {{DEFAULTSORT:Buergenthal, Thomas 1934 births 2023 deaths American male non-fiction writers Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Bethany College (West Virginia) alumni Czechoslovak Jews Harvard Law School alumni Inter-American Court of Human Rights judges International Court of Justice judges International law scholars Jewish American non-fiction writers Nazi-era ghetto inmates New York University School of Law alumni People from Ružomberok District Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Slovak expatriates in Poland United Nations Human Rights Committee members Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany American judges of United Nations courts and tribunals American judges of international courts and tribunals 21st-century American Jews Members of the Institut de Droit International