This year, all civilized nations of the world will celebrate (even under extreme conditions of the pandemic) the 75th anniversary of victory over the Nazi regime. In this regard, it seems appropriate once again to address the issue of legal liability for crimes against humanity, which were subjected to punishment for the first time by the International Tribunal in Nuremberg.

The legal views of Professor H. Lauterpacht have already attracted much attention of domestic and foreign experts, primarily in international criminal law. In particular, works by V. Navrotskyi, F. Sands, and S. Murphy are especially noteworthy. However, researchers generally disregarded the fact that the first doctrinal designer of the names of several types of crimes against humanity was a native of Eastern Galicia, Professor H. Lauterpacht. The episode of the first official implementation of the Lauterpacht’s project in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal is vividly reflected in the book by the distinguished British Professor of international law F. Sands which is widely known today. It tells that in the summer of 1945, Lauterpacht was visited in England by an American practicing lawyer – R. Jackson, the future chief prosecutor from the United States at the Nuremberg trials. And H. Lauterpacht dictated him the text which was subsequently used in the Charter.

The article focuses on describing the contribution made by Professor H. Lauterpacht to the initial establishment of such an institution as international criminal liability for crimes against humanity, as well as to the implementation and development of this institution in modern international law.

The main research methods used were anthroposocial, historical, comparative legal, hermeneutical, system structural, and formal logical methods. The conclusions of the article include, in particular, the following points. For the first time in the history of mankind, Professor of the University of Cambridge H. Lauterpacht (former student of the Faculty of Law of Lviv University) identified several types of crimes against humanity, which were enshrined in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Subsequently, these legal constructions were also used in the incorporation documents of the following international tribunals established under the auspices of the UN. The most complete list of types of crimes against humanity, for which the ideas of Lauterpacht were constantly reproduced, was formulated in art. 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Now they are duplicated in the draft UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity which was prepared by UN Commission on international law during 2015–2020 and adopted by the UN General Assembly for consideration at the end of last year. All this testifies to the unique merits of Professor Lauterpacht in the implementation of today’s world standard for the prohibition of inhumane treatment, and in the humanization of national and international legal regulation. And this is worth noting today, when the 75th anniversary of victory over the Nazi regime is being celebrated.

Bibliography

Edited and translated books

1. Sends F, Skhidno-Zakhidna vulytsia. Povernennia do Lvova [East-West Street. Back to Lviv] (per z anhl, Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva 2017) (in Ukrainian).

Theses

2. Kuchevska S, ‘Problemy harmonizatsii zakonodavstva Ukrainy pro kryminalnu vidpovidalnist ta Statutu Mizhnarodnoho kryminalnoho sudu’ [‘Issues of Harmonization of Ukrainian Legislation on Criminal Liability and the Statute of the International Criminal Court’] (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, 2009) (in Ukrainian).