In this issue

• First page
• News and Programmatic Highlights
  • ASIL Sidebar
  • IJA Docket
  • Cases of Note
• Opinion and Commentary
  • Global Judicial Dialogue
  • General Principles of International Law
  • Leading Figures in International Law
  • Justice Sector Assessment
  • In Review: New Publications on International and Comparative Law
• Justice in Profile
• International Tribunal Spotlight
• Significant Judicial Developments
• International Resources
• Calendar of Events

Justice In Profile

Professor Dr. h.c. Rudiger Wolfrum

JUDGE Rudiger Wolfrum of Germany is the President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which sits in Hamburg, Germany. He was elected to his current position in 2005 and has been a member of the Tribunal since 1996. He was its vice-president from 1996 to 1999. His term is for three years. He is the only judge of the Tribunal required to reside permanently in Hamburg, because he represents the Tribunal in its relations with all countries and other entities that have business before it. He also supervises the administrative affairs of the Tribunal.

Judge Wolfrum is one of the most distinguished international jurists in the world, with a particular expertise in oceans law. Among his current affiliations, in addition to the Tribunal, are:

• Member of the Executive Board of the Foundation for Polar and Maritime Research

• Member of the Executive Board of the Foundation for Marine Geosciences

• Judge of the International Environmental Board of Arbitration

• Member of the Advisory Board of the German Foundation for Peace Studies

• Vice-President of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Sciences, Heidelberg. He also served as the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and professor at Heidelberg University-

• Founding Member of the Humanities Section of the German Academy of Natural Sciences

• Member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Hamburg

• President of the German Society of International Law

• Member of the Executive Board of the Center for German Law at the Institute of State and Law at the Russian Academy of Sciences

• Member of the Men and the Biosphere Committee of the German Ministry of the Environment Member of the European Academy for Research into consequences of Scientific-Technological Developments

• Member of the Expert Committee for Biodiversity Research of the German Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology

• Member of the Board of Directors of the German Section of the International Law Association

From 2001 to 2005 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law. In 1983 he participated in the Preparatory Commission for the International Sea-Bed Authority and for the International Law of the Sea Tribunal as a member of the delegation from the Federal Republic of Germany. From 1993 to 1998, he was chair of the working group of legal experts to the Antarctic Treaty Parties Meeting.

Judge Wolfrum was born in Berlin in 1941 and studied law at the Universities of Bonn and Tubingen. He received his doctorate of law in 1973.

From 1973 to 1980 he held an assistant professorship at the Institute of International Law at the University of Bonn. While in that position he was also a Research Fellow at the Center of Oceans Law and Policy of the University of Virginia School of Law (1977-1978). From 1980 to 1982 he participated in the Third U.N. Law of the Sea Conference as a representative from Germany. He has held the following additional academic appointments:

• Professor and Chair of national public and international public law, Faculty of Law and Economics, University of Mainz

• Professor and Chair of national public and international public law and Director of the Institute of International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Kiel

• Vice-rector of the Christian-Albrechts-Universitat at Kiel

He has also been a visiting professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Judge Wolfrum began his judicial career in 1986, when he was appointed judge at the Court of Appeals for Administrative Matters for the states of Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein. In 1991 he became a judge at the Court of Appeals for Administrative Matters of the Land Schleswig-Holstein.

From 1990 to 1999 he was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Judge Wolfrum is the author of many books and articles dealing with the international law of the sea, public international law, international environmental law, international human rights law and the United Nations and the Antarctic, including the following:

• Internationalization of Common Spaces Outside National Jurisdiction: The Development of an International Administration for Antarctica, Outer Space, High Seas and Deep Seabed 1984

• United Nations: Law, Policies, and Practice 1995

• Enforcing Environmental Standards: Economic Mechanisms as Viable Means1996

• The Right to a Fair Trial (together with D. Weissbrodt) 1997;

• Means of Ensuring Compliance with and Enforcement of International Law, Recueil des Cours 272, 1998, 10 et seq.

• International Law, vol. I/1, I/2, I/3 (in German; together with J. Delbrück), 2002

• "Conflicts in International Environmental Law" (together with N. Matz), Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, vol. 164, A. von Bogdandy and R. Wolfrum (eds.), 2003

• "Equality and Non-discrimination in National and International Human Rights Protection" (ed.), Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, vol. 165, 2003.

By James G. Apple, Co-Editor, International Judicial Monitor and President, International Judicial Academy

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