Alfred Verdross

Alfred Verdross, later Verdross-Drossberg, was an Austrian international lawyer and judge who lived from 22 February 1890 to 27 April 1980. He taught international law and philosophy of law at the University of Vienna from 1924 to 1961 and became one of the main exponents of the Vienna school of legal theory alongside Hans Kelsen. He served as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission from 1957 to 1966, sat on the Permanent Court of Arbitration from 1958 to 1977, was a judge of the European Court of Human Rights from 1959 to 1977, and presided over the Institut de Droit International from 1959 to 1961. He is regarded as the chief theorist of the doctrine of ius cogens, peremptory norms of international law that cannot be overridden by treaty, and as a leading advocate of the monist theory of the relationship between international and domestic law.