Åke Hammarskjöld

Åke Wilhelm Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (April 10, 1893, Uppsala-July 7, 1937, The Hague) was a Swedish lawyer and diplomat. He was the first Registrar of the Permanent Court of International Justice, serving from 1922 to 1936, when he was elected to the position of judge to the same court. He served in the latter position until his death.

Life

Åke Hammarskjöld was born in 1893 in Uppsala. He studied at the University of Uppsala for a career in the foreign service. During the First World War, he was a member of a committee of the Swedish government which worked out the basis for Sweden's participation in the legal organization of the postwar order. After the war, he served as secretary of the delegation of his country at the Paris Peace Conference. From 1920 he worked in the secretariat of the newly formed League of Nations in drafting the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and organizing the first elections of judges to the court.

In 1922 he was appointed Registrar of the court by the Secretary General of the League of Nations. In 1936 he taught as a lecturer at the Hague Academy of International Law. On October 8 of the same year he was elected as a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice. He died nine months later in The Hague, at the age of 44.

His father, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, was the Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917. His brother, Dag Hammarskjöld, was the second Secretary General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961.

Awards and honors

Åke Hammarskjöld became a member of the Institut de Droit International in 1925. The universities of Berne and Stockholm each awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Works

• Some Facts About the World Court. New York 1927
• La Cour permanente de justice internationale á la neuvième session de l'assemblée de la Société des nations. Brüssel 1928
• La Protection des populations civils contre les bombardements. Genf 1930 (als Mitautor)
• Juridiction internationale. Précédé d'une étude sur l'auteur. Leiden 1938

References

• Biographical Notes concerning Members of the Court. M. Åke Hammarskjöld, Member of the Court. In: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Permanent Court of International Justice. A.W. Sijthoff's Publishing, Leiden 1937, S. 25/26
• Manley Ottmer Hudson: In Memoriam: Åke Hammarskjold. In: American Journal of International Law. 31(4)/1937. American Society of International Law, S. 703/704, ISSN 0002-9300
• Max Huber: Åke Hammarskjöld in Memoriam. In: Nordisk Tidsskrift for International Ret. 8(1)/1937. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, S. 133−137, ISSN 0029-151X