F. Blaine
educator lawyer retired law educator scholar
Blaine Sloan was born in 1920 in Geneva, Illinois, United States. His professional life combined public international law, United Nations service, and legal education, with a long association with international institutions and university teaching.
Sloan studied at the University of Nebraska, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts with high distinction in 1942 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1946. He then pursued graduate legal study at Columbia University, receiving a Master of Laws in International Law in 1947. This sequence established the academic foundation for his subsequent work in public and private international law.
Sloan began his professional career in 1947 as an assistant to the special counsel of the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees. In 1948 he joined the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, beginning a United Nations career that continued for approximately three decades. He served as General Counsel of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from 1958 to 1960 and later held senior positions in the United Nations Legal Office, including Deputy to the Legal Counsel and Director of the General Legal Division from 1966 through 1978. In that capacity he was involved in United Nations legal work concerning Vietnam, relief for Palestinian refugees, peacekeeping in the Middle East, the United Nations Commission on Korea, and legal advice to Security Council sessions in Africa and Latin America. He represented the Secretary-General at sessions of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law from 1969 to 1978, at sessions of the Legal Sub-Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space from 1966 to 1978, and at the 1978 United Nations Conference on the Carriage of Goods by Sea. After leaving the United Nations, he became a professor of international law and organization at Pace University, where he developed the institution's international law studies program. He later served as Professor Emeritus and remained associated with Pace's international law tradition.
Developed the international law studies program at Pace University.
Represented the United Nations Secretary-General at sessions of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and at the 1978 United Nations Conference on the Carriage of Goods by Sea.
Served as Director of the United Nations General Legal Division and contributed to the organization's work on international trade law, refugees, peacekeeping, and the law of international organizations.
General Assembly Resolutions Revisited (Forty Years Later)
(Extended analysis of the legal significance and developme...)
1988Advisory Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice
(Article examining the legal foundations and development o...)
1950(Article examining the constitutional character of the Uni...)
1989Reparation for Injury to Agents of the United Nations
(Article addressing legal principles concerning reparation...)
1949(Book analyzing the role, legal significance, and potentia...)
1991The Binding Force of the Recommendations of the General Assembly of the United Nations
(Early study of the legal force of recommendations adopted...)
1948Identified with African Gospel Christianity.
Sloan was associated with the Society of International Law, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Arbitration Association, the Order of the Coif, Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Alpha Delta, the latter in an honorary capacity. These affiliations reflected his participation in professional, scholarly, legal, and academic organizations.
Sloan's professional connections centered on the United Nations and Pace University. Pace University's Blaine Sloan Lecture on International Law was established in his honor in recognition of his three decades in the United Nations Legal Office, his leadership in developing Pace's international law studies program, and his contributions to public and private international law.
