Charles Henry Alexandrowicz (13 October 190226 September 1975), born Karol Aleksandrowicz, was a lawyer and scholar of

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. Born in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

, Alexandrowicz attended primary school at the

Schottengymnasium Schottengymnasium (officially the Öffentliches Schottengymnasium der Benediktiner in Wien) is an independent Catholic gymnasium with public status in the First District of Vienna. The school was founded in 1807 by imperial decree, and is consi ...

in Vienna and studied law at

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

, graduating with a doctorate in 1926. Subsequently, he worked for the

Bank of Poland The Bank of Poland (Bank Polski) is the name of two former banks in Poland, each of which acted as a central bank. The first institution was founded by Prince Francis Xavier Drucki-Lubecki in 1828 in the Kingdom of Congress Poland. The second was ...

for three years, and then until 1939 practised law in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

and

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

. Just before the outbreak of war in 1939, he accepted a lectureship at the Higher School of Social Sciences in Katowice. At the beginning of hostilities, Alexandrowicz was commissioned into the Polish army and was involved in fighting against both Soviet and German forces before the collapse of the Polish government. He then was able to escape to Romania, where he with other exiles to attempted to preserve the continuity of the Polish state. Increasing hostility from the Romanian authorities led Alexandrowicz and other exiles to decamp first to Istanbul and then, eventually, to London, where the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

had been established after the

fall of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World ...

. Initially, Alexandrowicz acted as a financial counsellor to the Polish embassy and then as a governor of the Polish national development bank,

Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) is a Polish national development bank with headquarters in Warsaw, is a state-owned bank in Poland, operating under a dedicated bill of law. Its main tasks are: support and servicing of export transactions, issu ...

. He simultaneously served in the British

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

. In 1945, Alexandrowicz was appointed Director-General of the

European Central Inland Transport Organization The European Central Inland Transport Organization or ECITOP was a short-lived United Nations agency founded in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War to: provide for the co-ordination both in the movement of traffic and the in the alloc ...

(ECITO), a new United Nations specialist agency. Following the absorption of ECITO by the

Economic Commission for Europe The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE or UNECE) is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and i ...

in 1947, Alexandrowicz returned to the law and was called to the bar of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1948. He became a British citizen in 1950. From London he moved to India in 1951 to teach at the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

, publishing on Indian constitutional law. He spent a decade at the university and then moved to the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

in 1961. He retired from academic life in 1967. Alexandrowicz's scholarship emphasises a tradition of international law rooted in the work of

natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...

theorists such as

Grotius Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...

—a tradition he saw as universalist—as opposed to later European theorists, who embraced Eurocentric views of the law of nations.

Publications (partial)

References

Sources

Further reading