International Law and Human Rights: The Power and the Pity. (Mcgill Law Journal Annual Lecture‪)‬

About ten years ago, Irwin Cotler organized a conference on the fiftieth anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials and invited me to speak on the topic, "The Instructive Power of Outrage" (1). It launched me on a voyage of legal discovery that has kept me in intellectual thrall ever since. And looking back on that lecture and how hopeful we all were that Nuremberg's lessons would prevail, I find myself wistful for that optimism, and somewhat disillusioned but unprepared to give up. As a result, I have called this lecture about international law and human rights "The Power and the Pity" in the hope that in this audience of brilliant students are the leaders who will take the world by the hand and help show it the way into the future. Since 1945, the global community has demonstrated an enormous capacity for constructing legal systems and institutions to enhance and advance international law. Many areas of international law are free from controversy and generally effective: telecommunications and broadcasting; the international postal system; laws on shipping and bills of exchange; international travel; passport and customs control; international financial transactions; international trade of goods, services, and ideas; diplomatic and consular relations; and the mutual recognition of marriages, divorces, and university degrees. They are a less visible, but nonetheless significant, series of successes for international law.