Congratulations to James Crawford on becoming the 36th recipient of the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award at a ceremony at the end of March. The Award is presented annually by the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law based at the University of Columbia. Each year the Award honours an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of international law.
Previous honorands have included the likes of Philip Jessup, Oscar Shachter, Rosalyn Higgins, Thomas Buerguenthal, John Hazard, Thomas Franck, Louise Arbor, Ian Brownlie, Hans Blix and Antonio Cassese. James’s citation refers particularly to his work as the first Australian to be a member of the UN International Law Commission (1992-2001), where he was responsible for the ILC’s work on the International Criminal Court and for the second reading of the ILC Articles on State Responsibility, as well as his scholarly work on statehood, collective rights, investment law, and international responsibility, and his work as an advocate before international tribunals and as expert, counsel and arbitrator in international arbitrations.