Louis Henkin, Leader in Field of Human Rights Law, Dies at 92
Louis Henkin, a legal scholar often credited with creating the field of human rights law and the author of classic works on constitutional law and the legal aspects of foreign policy, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Alice Hartman Henkin.
Professor Henkin, unusual in combining equal expertise in constitutional law and international law, moved easily between academia and government. His legal scholarship was a fundamental resource for other scholars involved in human rights and international law, and his books addressed to a broader audience — notably “Foreign Affairs and the Constitution,” “The Rights of Man Today,” “How Nations Behave” and “The Age of Rights” — became required reading for government officials and diplomats.
Through his teaching at Columbia University, where he founded the Center for the Study of Human Rights in 1978 and the Human Rights Institute in 1998, and through seminars run by the Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program, he trained hundreds of legal specialists and advocates in the field of human rights law....
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His death was confirmed by his wife, Alice Hartman Henkin.
Professor Henkin, unusual in combining equal expertise in constitutional law and international law, moved easily between academia and government. His legal scholarship was a fundamental resource for other scholars involved in human rights and international law, and his books addressed to a broader audience — notably “Foreign Affairs and the Constitution,” “The Rights of Man Today,” “How Nations Behave” and “The Age of Rights” — became required reading for government officials and diplomats.
Through his teaching at Columbia University, where he founded the Center for the Study of Human Rights in 1978 and the Human Rights Institute in 1998, and through seminars run by the Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program, he trained hundreds of legal specialists and advocates in the field of human rights law....