Professor James Crawford Appointed to the International Court of Justice

The Faculty of Law is delighted to announce that  the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council yesterday elected Professor James Crawford as a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

After simultaneous rounds of voting in the Assembly and the Council – which met concurrently with but independent of each other – 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, starting on 6 February next year.

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.

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.  He 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.

For more information please refer to the UN website.