Marjorie M. Whiteman

Marjorie Millace Whiteman (November 30, 1898—July 6, 1986) was an American expert on international law and the author of a leading digest of international law. She served in the U.S. State Department for over forty years and was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1979.

Biography

Marjorie Millace Whiteman was born in Liberty Center, Ohio, in 1898. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1920^[1] and went on to get L.L.B. (1927) and J.D. (1928) law degrees from Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.^[2] She did some further studies at National University and was a Carnegie Fellow in international law, which became her specialty.^[2]

Whiteman taught high school history from 1920 to 1926, and then in 1929 took up a post with the State Department, beginning a career that lasted four decades and during which she advised ten Secretaries of State on international law.^[1][2] For part of this period, she served as special assistant to Green Hackworth, then the department's legal adviser.^[2] She helped to draft the charter of the United Nations in 1945 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights three years later.^[2]

From 1945 to 1951 she acted as an adviser to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was then serving as the United States representative to the United Nations General Assembly.^[1][2] She also participated in many Pan-American conferences, notably the one in 1948 at which the charter for the Organization of American States was drafted. When the State Department was reorganized in 1949, Whiteman was named the first Assistant Legal Adviser for American Republic Affairs.^[2]

Whiteman was a key contributor to Green Hackworth's eight-volume Digest of International Law (1937–1943) and capped her career by later publishing her own 15-volume Digest of International Law, completed in 1969.^[2] Her digest included sections on new and emerging areas of international law, including outer space and aviation, disarmament, Antarctica and the Continental Shelf, and international organizations.^[1] Known as the "Whiteman Digest", it continues to be a leading reference work in the field for government officials and scholars of international law.^[1][2]

Whiteman served as vice-president of the American Society of International Law.^[1]

Whiteman was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1979. She died at home in Liberty Center, Ohio, in 1986.

References