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![handle is hein.journals/hilj48 and id is 7 raw text is: VOLUME 48, NUMBER 1, WINTER 2007
Louis B. Sohn: Architect of the
Modern International Legal System
Daniel Barstow Magraw*
Professor Louis B. Sohn (1914-2006) was not only present at the creation of
the modern international legal system, he was its principal architect. He
participated in the 1945 drafting conference in San Francisco that created the
United Nations,' as well as in events leading up to the conference. He also
played a leading role in the creation or development of many other areas of
international law, including human rights, international environmental law,
law of the sea, international organizations, arms control and disarmament,
and international dispute settlement. Each of these areas of international law
bears his creative and indelible mindprint.
In addition to contributing to the development of specific areas of inter-
national law and its institutions, Louis had systemic, cross-cutting impacts
having to do with the very nature of the international legal system. As Dean
Harold Koh notes in his essay in this volume, [Louis] helped shape the ex-
act moment in history when international law made its dramatic shift from a
loose web of customary, do-no-harm, state-centric rules toward an ambitious
positive law framework built around institutions and constitutions-inter-
national institutions governed by multilateral treaties that aspired to organ-
ize proactive assaults on a vast array of global problems.'2 His vision in-
volved the recognition that international law could, and indeed should, move
beyond the regulation of state-to-state activities to also govern significant
aspects of the complex set of relationships among non-state actors such as indi-
viduals, transnational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and inter-
governmental organizations. His most ambitious effort in this respect was
the co-authored book World Peace Through World Law, which envisioned an
* President, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). The author wishes to express his
appreciation to Lara Ognibene and Jose Pablo Sanchez, Law Fellows at CIEL, and to Lucinda Low, for
their assistance in preparing this Article. He also wishes to express his appreciation to the members of the
Harvard International Law Journal for organizing this tribute, as well as to the other contributors to the
tribute. Louis loved Harvard Law School, he loved students everywhere, and he loved this particular set of
colleagues; he would have deeply appreciated this tribute.
1. The official title of this conference is the United Nations Conference on International Organization.
It commenced on April 25, 1945. The Charter of the United Nations was adopted by the conference on
June 26, 1945, and went into force on October 24, 1945. U.N. Charter.
2. Harold Hongju Koh, Louis B. Sohn: Present at the Creation, 48 HARV. INT'L L.J. 14-15 (2007).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hilj48&div=4&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)