Some have frowned at his style and criticized him for being too prolix and counterproductive, but Cançado Trindade was faithful to his tradition and consistent throughout his career. He brought to bear an unmistakably Mineiro accent that was conciliatory, humanistic and pacifist. Coming from a country where judges are required by law to explain their decisions in writing and court’s deliberations are not only open to the public but also broadcasted on live TV, individual opinions are but natural.
No doubt, but also a great legacy. Unbothered about the lack of adhesion to his positions by his peers, he hoped to infuse his humanized sensibilities into the new generations of international law scholars (and judging from the reactions to his death, I believe he managed to achieve that). He was always keen to engage with students, especially at the Hague. As he wrote in the final pages of his General Course in the Hague Academy:
We can aspire to a better world, to start with, by learning properly the lessons of the past. It has been in historical moments of crisis, such as the one we currently witness and endure, that one has gathered energy and found investor database inspiration to endeavour to improve the human condition. Human conscience does not capitulate in face of great adversities; quite on the contrary, it awakens as to the pressing need to face new challenges and to construct a better world. […] I dare to express my own confidence that, being faithful to the humanist and universalist vision of the founding fathers of our discipline, the new generations of its scholars will succeed to keep on construct- ing, in the years to come, to the benefit of our descendants, the new jus gentium of this new century, the International Law for humankind.