Georges Michel Abi-Saad is the archetype judge/academic in international law. He has had distinguished appointments in both international courts and in prestigious academic institutions, both backed up by a stellar educational background.

Judge/Professor Abi-Saad was born in Heliopolis, one of Egypt’s oldest cities and now a suburb of Cairo, in June, 1933. After graduation from Cairo University with his first law degree in 1954, he attended Harvard Law School, where he received  Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degrees. He also attended the University of Paris in France and Cambridge University in the U.K. He received an M.A. degree in economics from the University of Michigan (U.S.) and a Ph.D in political science from the University of Geneva (Switzerland). His final diploma is from the Hague Academy of International Law (Netherlands).

His representation and advocacy before the International Court of Justice and in international arbitration includes the following cases:

• The Tunisian Government before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case concerning the Continental Shelf (Tunisia /Libyan Arab Republic)

• The Egyptian Government in the arbitration on the Frontier Dispute (Taba)

• Egypt/Israel); in the consultative proceedings before the ICJ on the Interpretation of the Agreement of 25 March 1951 between the World Health Organization and Egypt; and in the Advisory Proceedings on the Legality of the Use by a State of Nuclear Weapons in Armed Conflict and the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons

• The Nigerian Government before the ICJ in the case concerning the Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria

• The Palestinian Authority in the consultative proceedings before the ICJ on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Judge/Professor Abi-Saad has used his extensive education to serve both the judiciary and academe.  In the judiciary he served twice as an ad hoc judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He also served as a member of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He is also former Chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization,  former Commissioner of the United Nations Compensation Commission, and current member of the Administrative Tribunal of the International Monetary Fund. He is a member of the Institute of International Law and President of the African Foundation for International Law.

He has had a long affiliation with the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, where he taught international law subjects from 1963 to 2000. He is now an honorary professor at that institution. His visiting professorships include those at Harvard Law School, the Universities of Tunis, Jordan, and the West Indies, New York University Law School and the Belgium Universities. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Brussels and a Doctor of Humane Letters from the American University in Cairo.

His books include International Crises and the Role of Law The United Nations Operation in the Congo 1960-1964, and The Concept of International Organization (Editor). He designed two courses at the Hague Academy of International Law, one on “Wars of National Liberation in the Geneva Conventions and Protocols”  and the other a “General Course of Public International Law.”