Herbert Whittaker Briggs (May 14, 1900 – January 6, 1990) was an American lawyer and professor at Cornell University.
Briggs was born in Wilmington, Delaware to Frederic F. Briggs and Eleanore A. Briggs (née Lewis), a grand-niece of manufacturer and philanthropist John Price Crozer. In 1921, Briggs was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from West Virginia University. This was followed by doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University; he received his Ph.D. in 1925. Briggs then worked as a lecturer at Oberlin College, before he moved to Cornell University in 1929. There he received a call in 1947 for a professorship at Cornell. He is considered one of the founders of the Department of Political Science at Cornell University. In addition, Briggs held a visiting professorship at the University of Copenhagen as part of the Fulbright program.
Briggs also had an impact on the international stage. He was a member of the International Law Commission between 1962 and 1966, represented Honduras, Spain and Libya in litigation before the International Court of Justice and, as a member of the American delegation, attended the Conference on the preparation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. He was also active in numerous international arbitrations as a referee.
Briggs was a member of the Institut de Droit International an active in the American Society of International Law, presiding as president from 1959 to 1960. He was co-editor of the American Journal of International Law from 1939 onward and editor-in-chief from 1955 to 1962.
In 1970 Briggs was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.