Jesus College Fellow elected to the World Court.
Professor James Crawford has been elected to be a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
After simultaneous rounds of voting in the Assembly and the Council Professor Crawford, along with Mr Mohamed Bennouna of Morocco, Ms Joan E. Donoghue of the United States, and Mr. Kirill Gevorgian of the Russian Federation were elected to nine-year terms on the ICJ.
Professor Crawford is an international lawyer with a substantial record of service as Counsel in matters before the ICJ and other international courts and tribunals.
The Jesus College Fellow is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, and holder of a Research Chair at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He has previously been Professor of International Law at the Universities of Adelaide and Sydney.
Professor Crawford is Senior Fellow (and former Centre Director) of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. As a member of the International Law Commission Professor Crawford was responsible for two major initiatives – the Articles on State Responsibility and the draft Statute of the International Criminal Court.
He was the member of the Australian Law Reform Commission responsible for reports on Aboriginal customary law, foreign state immunities law and admiralty law.
The International Court of Justice is established under Chapter XIV of the UN Charter and has 15 members who are elected for terms of nine years. Elections for five members of the Court are held every three years. The Professor’s term starts on 6 February next year.
Established in 1945, and based in The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICJ – which is also known as the World Court – settles legal disputes between States and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by other authorized UN organs.
For more information please refer to the UN website.