Walther Adrian Schücking (6 January 1875,

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

– 25 August 1935,

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

) was a German liberal politician, professor of public international law and the first German judge at the

Permanent Court of International Justice The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, existed from 1922 to 1946. It was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1920 (although the idea of an international court was several cent ...

in The Hague.

Early life

Schücking was born in

on 6 January 1875 to the district judge Carl Lothar Levin Schücking and his wife Luise Wilhelmine Amalie Beitzke (daughter of the politician and historian Heinrich Beitzke). His grandfather was the German novelist Levin Schücking (1814–1883). His brothers were Levin Ludwig Schücking (1878–1964), professor of English at the University of Leipzig, and Lothar Engelbert Schücking (1873–1943), lawyer, author and mayor of Husum. Schücking was married to Irmgard Auguste Charlotte Marte von Laer (1881–1952).

Biography

In 1913–14 Walter Schücking was a member of the international commission sent by the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

to investigate the conduct of the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

of 1912–13. He co-authored its report. He was a German delegate to the International union of Hague conference, and one of the six German delegates to the Paris Peace Conference to whom the Allies presented the draft

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

. As a member of the

Weimar National Assembly The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of it ...

and then the Reichstag from 1919 to 1928, he was the second chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into the question of guilt for the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. As a judge on the

, Schücking issued an important separate opinion on the Oscar Chinn Case in which he contributed to the theory of the

Peremptory norm A peremptory norm (also called ) is a fundamental principle of international law that is accepted by the international community of states as a norm from which no derogation is permitted. There is no universal agreement regarding precisely w ...

in international law. Schücking also advocated for recognizing China as an equal member of the international community, and in the 1920s served as a consultant for its government in the attempt to repeal foreign

extraterritoriality In international law, extraterritoriality or exterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdict ...

. Schücking was also notable as one of the earliest consistent advocates in international law for a ''Weltstaatenbund'', or permanent international organization of states. Walther Schücking was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

in 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934. In 1995, the Institute of International Law at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

was renamed the Walther Schücking Institute of International Law in his honor.

External links

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schucking, Walther 1875 births 1935 deaths Politicians from Münster People from the Province of Westphalia German Protestants German Democratic Party politicians Members of the Weimar National Assembly Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic German Peace Society members 20th-century German judges