7 News Belize

Farewell Sir Eli
posted (February 17, 2017)
The Government of Belize is reporting tonight that British attorney Sir Elihu Lauterpacht has passed away. He has performed exceptionally for decades as one of the attorneys advising different Belizean Governments on how the handle the Belize/Guatemala Territorial claim.

"Sir Eli", as he was also known, was a Queen Council who's had a very distinguished career both as an attorney, and as a professor of the Trinity College, Cambridge University. He specialized in international law has argued cases before the International Court of Justice. In 2004, he was the attorney for Barbados before the arbitration tribunal settled its maritime border dispute with Trinidad and Tobago.

He has served as an arbitrator in several international tribunals, and he has also been an advisor to about 30 governments over his long and distinguished career.

He was specifically important to Belize because he provided counsel to the different governments on international law for over 30 years. In fact, back in 1978, at the request of the Government of the day, he and Dr. David Bowett, another leading authority in international law, prepared the important "Belize: Joint Opinion". In 2002, he collaborated with Judge Schwebel; a former President of the ICJ; Professor Shabtai Rosenne, and Professor Orrego Vicuña to prepare what is known as the "Legal Opinion on Guatemala's Territorial Claim to Belize".

The opinion of Sir Eli and his peers was that Guatemala cannot validly question the sovereignty Belize over the entire or any part of its territory. Their exact words were, quote, "We can state our conclusion immediately and without qualification. The answer is "No". Belize possesses good title to the whole of the territory, including the islands, that it presently administers, within the limits set by the Convention of 30 April 1859 between Britain and Guatemala relative to the boundary of British Honduras." End quote.

Last year, Sir Eli donated his "Belize Archives" to the Belize Archives and Records Service. It is a collection of records that he has gathered over many years from leading archives around the world. His wish is that the material is to be used exclusively by Belize's diplomats and lawyers directly engaged in the efforts to seek a final resolution to Guatemala's claim, especially if it is submitted to the ICJ.

For his service to Belize, the National Honours and Awards Committee officially bestowed the Order of Belize on him last September.

At the time of his death, he was 90 years-old.

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