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The Possibility of International Law: Commemorating Professor Nino Cassese
November 10, 2016
On 10 November 2016, a special event was held at the European University Institute’s Villa Salviati in Florence, to celebrate the opening of the Antonio Cassese Archives. By generous gift of the Cassese family, 40 boxes of the collected papers of Antonio Cassese were received, inventoried and organized by the Historical Archives of the European Union. The documents held in the Archive are open to the public and may be consulted in the reading room of the Historical Archives at Villa Salviati.
The opening of the Archive was marked by a day-long public event which commenced with the University of Florence’s Fifth Annual Antonio Cassese Lecture, delivered by Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, Vice-President of the International Court of Justice on the topic of ‘The Role of International Lawyers Between Theory and Practice’, which we are very pleased to publish in the following pages. Professor Sabino Cassese (LUISS University) and Professor Luigi Condorelli (University of Florence) reflected on the contents of the Archive while Dr Dieter Schlenker, Director of the Historical Archives of the European Union, described the inventory of the Archive. After lunch, Professor Sandesh Sivakumaran (University of Nottingham) spoke on ‘Who Makes International Humanitarian Law?’ with comments by Professor Joseph Weiler (New York University) and Professor Fannie Lafontaine (Laval University) gave a lecture entitled ‘International Criminal Law in a Divided World’ with comments by Dr Luisa Vierucci (University of Florence).
During the course of the day a number of interventions and comments recalled the extraordinary life and career of Antonio Cassese, and his lasting juristic, intellectual, personal and institutional influence on international law. The Antonio Cassese Archives was opened, approximately five years after his death, in order to help preserve his legacy and allow future generations of international lawyers and historians to draw inspiration and insight from his papers.
