Stephen M. Schwebel

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Judge Stephen M. Schwebel President of the ICJ (1997-2000)
Judge Stephen M. Schwebel President of the ICJ (1997-2000)

Stephen M. Schwebel (born March 10, 1929) is an American jurist and expert on international law. He is best known for delivering dissenting opinions in the case of Nicaragua v. United States and in the pair of Libya v. United Kingdom and Libya v. United States Lockerbie (Preliminary Objections) cases, which were discontinued in 2003[1].

Judge Schwebel was born in New York City. He received his B.A. magna cum laude with highest honours in government from Harvard University in 1950. He then studied at Cambridge University (1951) and the Yale Law School, receiving his LL. B. in 1954. He was admitted to the New York bar the next year; to that of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1965; and of the District of Columbia in 1976. In the years 1967-1981 he was Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Organization at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C.

He served at various positions in the U.S. Department of State, Legal Adviser Office in 1961-1981 and he was a member of the United Nations International Law Commission from 1977 to 1980. Judge Schwebel was first elected to the International Court of Justice in January 1981. He was subsequentely re-elected twice, and served as the President of the Court in the triennium 1997-2000, which marked the busiest docket of 22 new cases in the history of the Court.

Judge Schwebel is at present an independent arbitrator and counsel in Washington, DC, and a door tenant of Essex Court Chambers in London. He has been appointed in 44 international commercial arbitrations and in four intergovernmental arbitrations. He served as president of the Southern Bluefin Tuna Arbitration (Australia and NZ v Japan) and the maritime boundary arbitration between Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. He specialises in disputes between states and foreign investors, and has acted as arbitrator in some of the largest of such disputes. He was a member of ICSID's panels of arbitrators and of conciliators between 2000 and 2006. He has been chairman or party-appointed arbitrator in ICC, ICSID, AAA, Stockholm Institute, LCIA, PCA, Japan CAA, and UNCITRAL ad hoc proceedings. Judge Schwebel has also acted as counsel and advocate for Colombia in its territorial and maritime dispute with Nicaragua and for a number of other governments, corporations and law firms in international proceedings. President of the Administrative Tribunal of the International Monetary Fund since 1994, he is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He was designated by The American Lawyer in 2005 as one of the 'Top 10 Arbitrators' in the world, ranked number 2.

Judge Schwebel is the author of International Arbitration: Three Salient Problems (1987), Justice in International Law (1994) and 175 articles on international law and arbitration. He was awarded Yale Law School Medal of Merit (1997) and Manley O. Hudson Award (2000). He is doctor honoris causa, Bhopal University, India (1981), Hofstra University, New York (1996) and Miami University Law School (2002). He is a member of the New York and Washington, DC Bars.

The portrait photograph of H.E. Judge Schwebel was made by Max Koot Studio, The Hague[2].

  1. ^ See ICJ Lockerbie Cases : Libya v. UK and Libya v. USA and Lockerbie Case Report 92 AJIL 503-508 1998. See also - formally distinct from the ICJ - legal proceedings before the Scottish Criminal Court in the Netherlands, including: Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Trial and Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
  2. ^ Max Koot Studio bv Fotografie - Den Haag

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