Christopher G. Weeramantry, vice president of the International Court of Justice (ICI), urged law students to take a part in shaping the changing future of international law in a talk yesterday at the Law School's Pound Hall.

Law students, professors and even a retired lawyer enjoyed fruit, crackers and refreshments as the crowd of about 45 listened to the honored guest as part of the monthly European Law Research Center's (ELRC) "distinguished speaker series."

Weeramantry said the 20th century was "a century of lost opportunities," pointing to the unwillingness of world leaders to use the power of international law to challenge Hitler and the rise of Nazism.

Because international leaders naively believed in the possibility of world peace, they refused to aggressively pursue Hitler until it was too late.

Weeramantry, a native of Sri Lanka, then warned students that now might be the final time to correct the wrongs of the past century.

"We are now about to witness a new century which will be one of last opportunities," he said. "If we don't get things right in the next century, it may well be our last."

Weeramantry also stressed that it was up to future lawyers to determine how international law will develop.

"There is tremendous potential for good, just as there is tremendous potential for harm," he said.

Stressing the importance of ideas rather than the "letter of the law," the University of London graduate urged law students to understand their own potential in shaping the future of the law.

"The umbilical cord between international law and its mother, idealism, has never been severed," he said.

Weeramantry urged students to take advantage of ancient philosophy and intellectual works in a variety of cultures in order to further develop international law. He noted that many of the issues that are raised today in Western societies have been addressed in the past by non-Western cultures.

"Many of the principles with which we are to meet the problems of the future have already evolved," Weeramantry said. "[International law] must not part company with the wisdom of the past."

"We have got to garner all this wisdom and use it to strengthen international law and make an international rule of law that is truly international," he said.

Weeramantry pointed out the shortcomings of current international law, suggesting that it was Euro-centric and dominated by material values.

"One of the weaknesses of modern international law is that large sections of it are not international," he said.

Many of the law students in attendance said they planned a career in international law, and that Weeramantry provided them direction for their futures.

"He covered a lot of ground about international law that I think made a lot of sense," said Richard S. Froom, a first year law student.

"If we want the law to go in that [idealistic] direction, we have to go out and apply it," Froom said.