LACHS, MANFRED

LACHS, MANFRED (1914–1993), Polish jurist and authority on international law. Lachs went to England during World War II and acted as secretary to isaac schwarzbart , who was the Jewish member of the Polish National Council in exile. He returned to Poland and from 1947 was director of the legal department of the foreign ministry. From 1949 until 1952, he was professor of political science in Warsaw. Lachs was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and head of the Institute of Jurisprudence. On several occasions, he was a member of the Polish delegation to the United Nations and in 1957 and 1964 lectured at the Hague Academy of International Law. In 1967 he served as a judge at the International Court, and in 1973, Lachs was elected its president, to hold office for a period of three years. Among his publications are War Crimes. An Attempt to Define the Issue (1945), La frontière polono-allemande (1964), and Human Rights; Can They be Guaranteed? (1946). Two courses of Lach's lectures at the Hague Academy of International Law Les Développements et Fonctions des Traités Multilatéraux (1957) and The Law of Outer Space (1964; another book by him with the same title appeared in 1972) were published in the Recueil des Cours of the Academy. (Israel (Ignacy) Isserles)