[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IN REMEMBRANCE OF DR. HENRY T. KING, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 21, 2009

  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of Dr. Henry 
T. King Jr., a renowned lawyer and great man of peace, and in honor of 
his dedication to his country, community and to international human 
rights. Dr. King died at home on May 9, 2009, at age 89.
  Dr. Henry King was a distinguished scholar of international law, 
international trade, and international human rights. Shortly after 
graduating from Yale Law School and while practicing law in New York at 
Millbank, Tweed & Hope, Dr. King learned about Supreme Court Justice 
Robert Jackson's appointment as Chief Prosecutor of war criminals at 
Nuremberg. With the encouragement of his wife, he left for Nuremberg in 
1946 with Justice Jackson as one of the youngest of 200 prosecutors. As 
one of the prosecutors working on the Nuremburg Trials, he worked on 
the convictions of many Nazi officials, including Walther von 
Brauchitisch, Erhard Milch, Hermann Goring, and Albert Speer. Dr. King 
was deeply affected by what he saw upon stepping off the train in 
Nuremberg. Surrounded by the rubble of bombed out buildings and people 
begging for food, he vowed at that time to dedicate his life to the 
prevention of war.
  Following the Nuremburg Trials, Dr. King served as Chief Counsel for 
the Marshall Plan. Between 1961 and 1981 he was Chief International 
Corporate Counsel at TRW, Inc., the position which brought Dr. King to 
Cleveland. For the last 28 years, he taught at Case Western Reserve 
University School of Law in Cleveland while practicing law at 
Cleveland's Squire Sanders & Dempsey. Upon his arrival at Case Western 
Reserve, he established the Canada-U.S. Law Institute in partnership 
with the University of Western Ontario. The Institute holds an annual 
conference in Cleveland, which I have had the pleasure of participating 
in a number of times since my career in Congress began in 1997. This 
year, I had the honor of addressing the conference about the 
commoditization of Great Lakes water.
  Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. King continued his activism in 
the struggle for peace through international law. He pushed for the 
creation of the International Criminal Court as a member of the 
international delegation in Rome to establish that court in 1998. After 
the delegation failed to include wars of aggression as war crimes, he 
continued to push for that with other delegates until they ultimately 
adopted a reference to the crime of war of aggression in the court's 
statute. Additionally, Dr. King served as a member of the American Bar 
Association's Task Force on War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia. He 
also believed that democracies which trade with one another tend to not 
go to war and advocated for international trade rules and statutes as 
another avenue toward peace.
  Dr. King received an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Laws by the 
University of Western Ontario in 2003. In 2004, the government of 
Canada appointed Dr. King Honorary Consul General for Cleveland and 
Northeast Ohio. Dr. King was truly a pioneer in promoting peace through 
international law and was cited in the Plain Dealer by David Crane, 
Syracuse University Professor and Chief Prosecutor of Sierra Leone 
President Charles Taylor as ``the George Washington of modern 
international law.''
  Madam Speaker and Colleagues, please join me in honor and remembrance 
of one of the great men of our time, Dr. Henry T. King, Jr. He will be 
greatly missed by those in the peace community working on issues of 
international humanitarian justice under the rule of law. Despite his 
absence, his work will continue to inspire countless activists and 
lawyers around the world who follow in his footsteps.

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