INTERNATIONAL LAWYERS AS A PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY
Even though international lawyers represent a variety of countries with diff erent cultures and legal traditions, with diff erent levels of economic development and political goals, they constitute a unique professional community ("a kind of invisible college dedicated to a common intellectual enterprise", according to O. Schachter) speaking one language - the language of international law. In international relations, in the absence of a higher (supranational) authority, lawyers sometimes become the only ones who "civilize" the protection of national interests, according to M. Koskenniemi; it causes specifi c ethical professional problems, which are considered on the example of the work of a lawyer in foreign policy departments, in international organizations and in international courts. The article substantiates the idea that international lawyers, due to the huge creative potential of their profession, are, in fact, the "architects" of international law and the system in which it exists.