A jurist, humanitarian, and internationalist, René Samuel Cassin (October 5, 1887- )* is one of the world's foremost proponents of the legal as well as the moral recognition of the rights of man. Neither a pessimist nor an optimist, the peace laureate, eighty-one years old when awarded the prize in 1968, confessed that "men are not always good" but he has based much of his life's work on the premise that human responses can be constructive if states will transform the conditions that breed ill will into those that recognize the dignity of man.