6 17. As to the international practice 20, the idea of a universal juridical conscience has marked presence in many debates of the United Nations (above all of the VI Committee of the General Assembly), in the work of the Conferences of codification of International Law (the so-called "law of Vienna") and the respective travaux préparatoires of the International Law Commission of the United Nations; more recently, it has occupied an important space in the cycle of World Conference of the United Nations of the nineties 21. 18. As to the more lucid doctrine, it may be recalled that, two decades before the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, already in 1929, in the memorable debates of the Institut de Droit International (New York session), - almost forgotten in our days, - it was pondered, for example, that - "(...) Dans la conscience du monde moderne, la souveraineté de tous les États doit être limitée par le but commun de l'humanité. (...) L'État dans le monde n'est qu'un moyen en vue d'une fin, la perfection de l'humanité (...). La protection des droits de l'homme est le devoir de tout État envers la communauté internationale. (...)" 22. At the end of the debates referred to, the Institut (22nd. Commission) adopted a resolution containing a "Déclaration des droits internationaux de l'homme", the first considerandum of which affirmed with emphasis that "la conscience juridique du monde civilisé exige la reconnaissance à l'individu de droits soustraits à toute atteinte de la part de l'État" 23. 19. In the synthesis of his philosophical thinking on the limits of State power, written in the period of 1939-1945 (during the full agony of what was believed to be "civilization"), Jacques Maritain took as the starting-point the existence of the human person, having roots in the spirit, and sustained that there only is a true progress of humanity when marching towards human emancipation 24. In affirming that "the human person trascends the State", for having "a destiny superior to time", Maritain added that - "(...) The State has no authority to oblige me to reform the judgment of my conscience, as nor has it the power to impose to the spirits its criterion on good and evil (...). intangibles et états d'exception / Non-Derogable Rights and States of Emergency (eds. D. Prémont, C. Stenersen and I. Oseredczuk), Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1996, pp. 73-89. 20 . This latter meaning no longer the simple "practice of States", inspired by their so-called "vital interests", as in the systematizations of the past, but rather the practice of States and international organisms in search of the realization of common and superior ends. 21 . A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Reflexiones sobre el Desarraigo como Problema de Derechos Humanos frente a la Conciencia Jurídica Universal", in A.A. Cançado Trindade y J. Ruiz de Santiago, La Nueva Dimensión de las Necesidades de Protección del Ser Humano en el Inicio del Siglo XXI, San José of Costa Rica, UNHCR, 2001, pp. 66-67. 22 Ibid., pp. 112 and 117. 23 Cit. in ibid., p. 298. . . 24 . J. Maritain, Los Derechos del Hombre y la Ley Natural, Buenos Aires, Ed. Leviatán, 1982 (reimpr.), pp. 12, 18, 38, 43, 50, 94-96 and 105-108.