“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 36 (2025), pages 3–14.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2025-36-3-14

Skrypniuk Oleksandr
The Pride of Ukrainian Legal Scholarship. On the Occasion of the 135th Anniversary of Academician Volodymyr Mikhaylovich Koretsky

Volodymyr Mikhaylovich Koretsky was an eminent jurist, educator, organizer of academic legal scholarship, diplomat, Judge of the International Court of Justice, and its Vice-President.
His entire life and professional activity stand as a testament to unwavering dedication to Ukraine and the advancement of legal science. Having received an outstanding university education in law, he commenced his career by teaching and conducting research on issues of civil law, and, following the Civil War, turned to the study of the methodology of legal science. During the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s, he combined scholarly and pedagogical pursuits with public service in republican state agencies. Concurrently, he engaged in robust research in the field of private international law.
In the 1930s, he took an active role in establishing higher legal education in Kharkiv, serving as Vice-Rector and Head of the Law Faculty while concurrently fulfilling professorial responsibilities. He chaired the Department of the History of State and Law at the Kharkiv Juridical Institute and, in 1939, defended his doctoral dissertation on the distinctive features of Anglo-American doctrine and international law. Following the attainment of his doctoral degree, all subsequent research by the scholar remained inextricably tied to the development of theories in private international law, international economic law, and public international law. After V. M. Koretsky was elected an Academician, he entered his Kyiv period. He founded the Institute of State and Law and the Department of International Law and Comparative Jurisprudence. Under his leadership, the institute was transformed from a modest research sector into a leading, advanced academic institution. During the 1950s and 1960s, V. M. Koretsky simultaneously engaged in scientific, organizational, and teaching activities alongside diplomatic service: he participated in three sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, served as an advisor to the representative of the USSR to the UN Security Council, worked on the UN Committee on the Progressive Development and Codification of International Law, the UN Commission on Human Rights, and the UN International Law Commission, and contributed as a co-drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He took part in numerous forums held under the auspices of the UN. The pinnacle of Koretsky’s diplomatic endeavors was his election as a member of the International Court of Justice in The Hague (1960–1970) and his tenure as Vice-President of that Court (1968–1970).
In the 1960s and 1970s, V. M. Koretsky’s scholarly work focused on the study of sovereignty, the international legal personality of republics, and the establishment of a stable international legal order based on principles of peace, security, and stability. He was actively engaged in public affairs in Ukraine, promoting the achievements of domestic legal scholarship abroad. His academic and diplomatic endeavors were duly recognized both nationally and internationally. He received the highest honors of the union and republican governments, was elected a member of numerous foreign academies and international associations, and his name was memorialized in the institute he founded, as well as through the posthumous publication of selected works.

Key words: Koretsky, legal scholarship, researcher and theorist, doctrine, private international law, international civil law, international economic law, public international law, diplomat, Judge of the International Court of Justice.

References

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3. Volodymyr Mykhailovych Koretskyi. Biobibliohrafiia vchenykh Ukrainskoi RSR. Kyiv, 1984. S. 6.
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14. Derzhava u Sviti prava. Viche. Traven 2009. S. 18.