This memoir by Justice Theodor Meron (b. 1930) describes a phoenix-like life, from Nazi-destruction of his childhood in western Poland; to education in Haifa, Jerusalem, Harvard and lifelong curiosity; service as Israeli ambassador and foreign ministry Legal Adviser; emigration to and naturalization in the United States, where he became New York University Professor, later legal counsellor in the Department of State; to election as Judge and President of the ex-Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague, presiding over groundbreaking appeals. Claiming that he lacks a ‘thick skin’, the book’s useful responses to past critiques of Meron should be informed by the near universal recognition of his emblematic service to international law, also among those who have criticized him. His life suggests that the international lawyer can almost transcend the nation state — and not only be made and used by their governments. As such, his book not only gives meaning to the notion of triumph of the human spirit, but it furthers the study of the profession of international law, and how the international lawyer’s desire to serve humankind can survive years of transactional relations with foreign ministries and the national interest. He sought to serve ‘humanity’s law’. While civil law lawyers may not ‘be less systematic in canvassing’ precedents as the book suggests, wise lawyers of all backgrounds ‘anchor their decisions’ in legally-protected, fundamental values. Renaissance Iustitia, sometimes blindfolded (not the Roman goddess), is an allegory of the virtue of justice, not just the institutions – diligite iustitiam qui dicatis terram, as Andrea del Sarto wrote on his 1526 depiction in Florence, and as attested to by Meron’s touching 2026 book.