During the early drafting of the UDHR, the Soviet delegate, Vladimir Koretsky, rebuked the great French jurist René Cassin for his use of the phrase 'civilised nations'. Framing civilisational hierarchies as an anachronism from the age of the tsars, Koretksy argued the phrase had 'no meaning at the present time'. Noting that the UK's draft declaration also referred to 'civilised nations', the future judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) asked that the committee 'not follow old documents too blindly but find a new track for itself'.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 77