In Memoriam: Professor Dr. Rainer Lagoni, 1941-2024
It is with deep sadness that the IFLOS Board of Directors has to announce the death of Professor Rainer Lagoni on 18 December 2024. Rainer Lagoni played a key role in the founding of the International Foundation for the Law of the Sea and has been associated with it ever since as a member of the Board of Trustees. With his passing, the national and international community of the law of the sea has lost one of its most esteemed representatives.
Rainer Lagoni studied law at the universities of Kiel, Geneva and Dublin. Soon after completing his doctorate in law (1972), he dedicated himself to public international law and in particular to the international law of the sea – initially as a research assistant at the Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel, then by participating in the LL.M. programme at Columbia Law School in New York and in the Académie de droit international in The Hague. In 1982, Rainer Lagoni was appointed Professor for the Law of the Sea at the then newly created Institute for the Law of the Sea and Maritime Law at the University of Hamburg, and was named Director of the Institute.
Rainer Lagoni was internationally recognised as a leading expert in the international law of the sea. His unwavering commitment to the “legal order for the seas and oceans” is exemplified by countless publications in prestigious international fora and his engagement as the German representative in the International Law Association committees on “Coastal State Jurisdiction Relating to Marine Pollution” and “Outer Continental Shelf”. Rainer Lagoni persistently promoted the vertical integration of law of the sea research and practice, i.e., an integrative understanding of private and public international law of the sea, which still resonates today in the concept and programme of the annual IFLOS Summer Academy.
Rainer Lagoni will be remembered as a valued colleague, supporter, popular university teacher and prudent doctoral supervisor, and in recognition of his achievements in research and teaching. Our deepest condolences go out to his family.