Contribution of Hersch Lauterpacht to the Development of International Protection of Human Rights

Abstract

The article is devoted to Hersch Lauterpacht's contribution to the development of the concept of international protection of human rights and international human rights law in general. The study analyzes relevant norms of international law and scientific works of Hersch Lauterpacht; considerable attention is paid to the reviews of leading scientists on Hersch Lauterpacht's books "An International Bill of the Rights of Man" published in 1945 and "International Law and Human Rights" in 1950. The purpose of the article is to, based on the analysis of Hersch Lauterpacht's scientific works, investigate his contribution to the development of the concept of international protection of human rights. Both general (dialectical and systemic-structural) and special (historical-legal, comparative-legal and formal-dogmatic) scientific methods were used in the research. The article defines the prerequisites for Hersch Lauterpacht's choice of international human rights protection as his scientific interest, explores the peculiarities of the scientific environment within which Hersch Lauterpacht developed the concept of international human rights protection, outlines the main doctrinal approaches to the control mechanism of human rights protection. Particular attention is paid to the progressiveness of Hersch Lauterpacht's concept of international control over the observance of human rights and obstacles to its establishment at the universal level. On the basis of the conducted research, the conclusion was formulated that Hersch Lauterpacht, among a number of scientists of the middle of the 20th century who developed the concepts of international legal regulations of human rights, most thoroughly, after investigating the genesis of the formation of human rights and using natural law approaches, proposed a model of effective international protection of human rights. Hersch Lauterpacht's views on the need for real guarantees of human rights at the universal level, rather than a simple declaration, were quite advanced and far ahead of their time. To a certain extent, they can be perceived as idealistic since even today, the achievement of the same universal international standard of guaranteeing human rights (especially economic, social and cultural) is improbable.