Stanisław Edward Nahlik (1911-1991) was a Polish legal scholar who published over 400 books and articles on various aspects of public international law. His works were translated into English, French and German and made an important contribution to the development of international humanitarian law after 1945. His major focus was on the international protection of cultural properties in armed conflicts; the regulations regarding the looted and displaced art treasures; the protection of civilians in the context of military conflicts, legal aspects of reprisal in war, and on broader questions of international efforts to impose regulation on modern warfare. Nahlik was a member of several European law associations and participated in numerous international conferences and meetings of experts in international humanitarian law.
He obtained a master's degree in law and political science at Johann-Casimir University in Lviv (then Lwów, Poland) in 1933 and began his work in diplomatic missions in 1936. He served at the Polish Consulate General in London and the Polish Embassy in Berne from 1939 to 1946. During the Second World War, Nahlik served as a vice-chairman of the Swiss Aid to Polish Prisoners of War Association, which organized help for Polish prisoners of war. For his activity, he was awarded the Médaille d'Europe by the Federation of Allied Combatants in Europe and the Cross of Merit "Pro vestra et nostra liberté" by the Association of Resistants - Polish Fighters in France and the Medal of Recognition by the Polish Army and Resistance in France.
After receiving a doctorate in law at Jagiellonian University in Cracow in 1948, Nahlik taught in Cracow and Torun, and from 1950 to 1956, he worked in the Office of Recovery and Compensation of the Ministry of Culture and Art and later at the Central Board of Museums and Monument Protection of Poland where he gained experience in dealing with legal issues of repatriation of cultural objects, which later became an important aspect of his legal studies.
From 1962 to 1981, Nahlik was Chair of Public International Law at Jagiellonian University. He was Poland's delegate to international conferences in Vienna in 1968 and 1969, during which the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties was negotiated and adopted. From 1975-1977 he chaired Commission II of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed Conflicts (Geneva, 1974-1977), attended by plenipotentiary representatives of 118 state parties and numerous observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. The conference dealt with two additional draft protocols to the Geneva Conventions, which the International Committee of the Red Cross has drawn up with a view to supplementing existing international humanitarian law in the light of new developments in warfare.
Among Professor Nahlik's most renowned works are two courses at the Hague Academy of International Law: “The international protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict” (1967), and “The extension of combatant status in the light of Geneva Protocol I of 1977” (1977). The materials of these courses were later published by the Hague Academy of International Law as part of their collection. Professor Nahlik was also invited to lecture at universities in over twenty countries in Europe, America and Africa, and was named doctor honoris causa by the University of Bordeaux (in 1973) and the University of Bochum (in 1985).
Nahlik’s works contributed to the development of the international protection of cultural properties in armed conflicts and on instruments of protection of civilians in the context of military conflicts. His book Grabież dzieł sztuki. Rodowód zbrodni międzynarodowej (1958) (Looting works of art. The origins of an international crime) was considered one of the most comprehensive studies of the history of theory and practice of the international protection of cultural properties, which provided detailed analysis of a variety of international legal treaties, diplomatic correspondence, and international conferences concerning the protection of cultural heritage. In this book, Nahlik examined and stated basic principles of customary international law regulating the scope of international protection of cultural property, provided the basis for defining the responsibility of states and individuals for violating applicable norms, and constructed a catalogue of international crimes against cultural property. In another seminal article “Belligerent reprisals as seen in the light of the diplomatic conference on humanitarian law, Geneva, 1974-1977” (1978) he analysed the arguments presented by Polish delegates at the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law, offering important insights into the discussions during working group meetings. Tracing the efforts of the international community to control and limit the use of reprisal by sides of military conflicts, Nahlik demonstrated that the prohibition of reprisals in new regulations formulated in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 became one of the Conventions’ principal achievements. This international law aspect was further developed in The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflicts in 1954 and in the Law of Treaties signed in Vienna on May 23, 1969.
After 1974-77 Geneva Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Professor Nahlik engaged in close cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo. After 1977, the Professor systematically participated in the Institute's Round Tables, congresses, and Red Cross humanitarian law seminars. Together with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Polish Red Cross, he organised the European edition of the humanitarian law seminar at the Jagiellonian University, which took place in 1979. His publications and cooperation with the ICRC allowed him to facilitate the spread of knowledge of international humanitarian law in Poland and throughout the world within and beyond academia.
Nelly Bekus (Exeter University)
Bibliography
Grabież dzieł sztuki. Rodowód zbrodni międzynarodowej, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1958.
"La protection internationale des biens culturels en cas de conflit arme'" Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law, vol. 120, 1967, pp. 61–136.
"L'extension du statut de combattant a la lumiere du Protocol I de Geneve de 1977", Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law, vol. 120, 1967, pp. 61–136.
International Law and the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflicts, 27 Hastings L.J. 1069, 1976.
“A Brief Outline of International Humanitarian Law” (International Review of the Red Cross, No. 241, July–August 1984, pp. 187–226).
Stanislaw-Edward Nahlik, “Protection of cultural property”, in International Dimensions of Humanitarian Law, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, UNESCO, Paris, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 1988, pp. 203-215. 1991.
Belligerent Reprisals as Seen in the Light of the Diplomatic Conference on Humanitarian Law, Geneva, 1974-1977, Changing Rules for Changing Forms of Warfare Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 42, Issue 2 (Spring 1978), pp. 36-66.
“From Reprisals to Individual Penal Responsibility.” In Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict: Challenges Ahead; Essays in Honor of Frits Kalshoven, edited by Astrid J. M. Delissen and Gerard J. Tanja, 1978, pp. 165–76. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
