Clarence Wilfred Jenks was born 7 March 1909 in Bootle, Lancashire. His father, a merchant navy officer, drowned when Jenks was eleven and he assumed responsibility with his mother for the family. Jenks was educated in state schools in Liverpool and, in 1926, he won an open scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and, in 1930, was president of the Cambridge Union. He was treasurer, British Universities League of Nations Society and chair, Cambridge University League of Nations Union. He twice won a scholarship to the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. He took a double first in history and law winning the Cecil Peace Prize in 1928 for a study on international arbitration.
ILO
Upon finishing his studies at Cambridge, Jenks joined the International Labour Organisation in Geneva as a legal adviser in the Legal Division. He would become Assistant Director-General, Deputy Director-General, principal Deputy Director-General and Director-General. As Director-General, he was preceded by David A. Morse and succeeded by Francis Blanchard. In 1936, he was called to the English bar by Gray's Inn. In 1944, with acting Director Edward J. Phelan, he drafted the Declaration of Philadelphia which restated the ILO's aims and purposes, envisioning the ILO as the master economic agency among the specialised international bodies. He was part of the ILO delegation at a number of international conferences including:
Jenks carried for many years the main responsibility for the ILO's work in international labour standards and human rights.
International legal scholar
Jenks was "one of the most prominent and prolific writers on international law of his time. His... "Some constitutional problems of international organization"... was for long the unrivalled source of instruction on that subject for professionals and academics alike." Jenks was Professor, Hague Academy of International Law in 1950, 1955 and 1966. He was Storrs Lecturer in Jurisprudence, Yale University, 1965.
Personal and family life
In 1949, Jenks married Jane Louise Broverman of New York. They had two sons. On 9 October 1973 Jenks was attending a session of the Institut de Droit International in Rome when he had a fatal heart attack. He was buried in Geneva.
The International Labour Code, 1939: A Systematic Arrangement of the Conventions and Recommendations Adopted by the International Labour conference, 1919-1939
Constitutional Provisions Concerning Social and Economic Policy: An International Collection of Texts Covering 450 Countries and Other Governments
The headquarters of international institutions : a study of their location and status
The international protection of trade union freedom
