The International Council of Jurists[lower-alpha 1] (ICJ) is a company based in London, England that organizes seminars and conferences in London and India, and gives out awards. It charges fees for membership, conference sponsorship and advertising. In April 2020 its president, Adish Aggarwala, launched a conspiracy theory in which he claimed the Chinese had deliberately launched the COVID-19 pandemic to further its ambitions to become a superpower. The Indian government disowned any connection with the ICJ and its views, but the story created a sensation in the Indian press.
The International Council of Jurists (ICJ) is made up of jurists from different countries. It is engaged in research, and has arranged conferences and seminars on subjects such as human rights and constitutional duties.[2] The president, Adish Aggarwala, is also chairman of the All India Bar Association (AIBA) and co-author of a coffee-table book titled Narendra Modi: A Charismatic & Visionary Statesman, with a foreword by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.[3]
The International Council of Jurists was incorporated on 23 October 2007 and is registered as Company Number 06407095 at the Companies House. It is "private limited by guarantee without share capital, use of 'Limited' exemption". The office address was given as 134 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9SA.[4] The ultimate beneficial owner is Mr Kumar Amit.[5] The company charges fees for membership, conference sponsorship and advertising.[6][7]
In 2011 Vijay J. Darda, a Congress MP and chairman of the Lokmat Group, received the International Jurists Award for his contribution in the field of legal education in rural areas. The award was presented by Lord Phillips in London on 21 June 2011.[11]
2012
In May 2012 the International Council of Jurists held a conference in London to cover a range of topics including judicial reforms and the role of jurists in nuclear disarmament. The 2012 ICJ Award was conferred by Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, on Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, one of the ICJ vice-presidents.[12] The second recipient of the 2012 ICJ Award was Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for his support to the development of the legal fraternity in India. He was not present to receive the award in person.[13][lower-alpha 2]
2013
In 2013 the International Council of Jurists wrote a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka that supported impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a vice-president of the ICJ, dissociated himself from this letter in a statement on the website of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Neither Chaudhry nor the two British jurists named as vice-presidents on the ICJ website, Navnit Dholakia, Baron Dholakia and Gavin Lightman, had been aware of the letter. Gavin Lightman resigned from the ICJ.[15]
Sundaresh Menon, Chief Justice of Singapore, in 2019
The International Council of Jurists and the University of Mumbai jointly organized a lecture on 19 April 2013 in Mumbai. Sundaresh Menon spoke on The Impact of Public International Law in the Commercial Sphere and Its Significance to Asia.[16] Menon, Chief Justice of Singapore, received the International Jurist Award.[10] The 2013 International Conference of Jurists was scheduled for London on 25–26 June 2013. Aggarwala said it would continue discussions that had started in a recent ICJ session in Delhi. Topics included human rights and ways to curb terrorism.[17]
2014
The ICJ held a convention in London in June 2014, with working sessions on mediation, freedom of information (issues and challenges); the press; law and ethics; terrorism, human rights and immigration; the relationship between the judiciary, legislature and the executive; arbitration; protection of intellectual property rights; and corporate governance.[18] Roy G. Spece, Jr., John D. Lyons Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, spoke on Separation of Powers and on The Role of Legal Education in Modern Society.[19]
Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, High Commissioner of Jamaica to the United Kingdom, received the 2014 International Jurists Award for her contributions to Alternative Dispute Resolution. Assamba was cochair of the session on Mediation.[18]Peter Tomka, president of the International Court of Justice, presented Ashok Chauhan, Founder President of the Amity Education Group, with the International Council of Jurists Award 2014 for his contribution to legal education.[20] Awards were also given to Mark Stephens, President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and author J. K. Rowling.[18] The ceremony was attended by chief justices, ministers, judges, members of parliament and other prominent people.[20]
2015
In October 2015 Adish C. Aggarwala gave an interview to The Dollar Business in which he called for change to the working of investigating agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, FEMA, and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). He said these agencies reacted to issues with private sector banks, but tended to ignored information about transactions through public sector undertakings and public sector banks, which they expected to be genuine.[21]
2017
In 2017 the International Council of Jurists asked the Chief Justice of India to order an inquiry into allegations of irregularities against a senior sitting Supreme Court of India judge. A committee investigating allegations against two Odisha high court judges had dropped their inquiry when they found the Supreme Court judge might be involved.[22] The ICJ noted that the Chief Justice of India in 2013 had pressed the Sri Lankan government to launch an impeachment probe of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. Adish Aggarwala said it was extremely rare for the ICJ to involve itself in cases related to judicial appointments.[22]
In April 2020 the ICJ president President Adish Aggarwala made a statement on the COVID-19 pandemic in which he said "This pandemic declared by the WHO is primarily due to conspiracy of Chinese government aimed at catapulting itself to the position of a superpower of the World and undermining other countries through biological warfare".[2] Aggarwala said it was a mystery that the virus had not spread in all provinces of China but had spread to all countries in the world.[23] He filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in which he listed the People's Republic of China, People's Liberation Army and Wuhan Institute of Virology as respondents.[24] He called on the UNHRC to order China to pay "exemplary damages to the entire world and in particular to India" for spreading the disease.[25] The Indian government hastened to state that they did not share these views and had no relations with the International Council of Jurists.[2]
Office bearers
According to the ICJ website, as of June 2024 the office bearers were:[26]
↑ The International Council of Jurists founded in 2007 is not to be confused with the former International Council of Jurists active in the 1960s with its headquarters in Geneva, an NGO with the power of an advisory committee of the United Nations with members from over 60 countries.[1]
↑ The ICJ president Adish Aggarwala was advocate general of Uttar Pradesh when Mulayam Singh Yadav was chief minister.[14]
↑ "Present Office Bearers". internationaljurists.org. International Council of Jurists. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
Related Research Articles
Taslim Olawale Elias was a Nigerian jurist who served as minister of Justice and attorney-general of Nigeria from 1960 to 1966, Chief Justice of Nigeria from 1972 to 1975 and president of the International Court of Justice from 1982 to 1985. He was a scholar who modernised and extensively revised the laws of Nigeria.
Sir James Richard Marie Mancham KBE was a Seychellois politician who founded the Seychelles Democratic Party and was the first President of Seychelles from 1976 to 1977.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and international human rights standards through the law. Commissioners are known for their experience, knowledge and fundamental commitment to human rights. The composition of the Commission aims to reflect the geographical diversity of the world and its many legal systems.
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 20th Chief Justice of Pakistan over three non-consecutive terms from 29 June 2005 to 11 December 2013.
Under the Constitution of Singapore, the judicial system of Singapore is divided into the Supreme Court which comprises the Court of Appeal and the High Court, and the subordinate courts, namely the State Courts and Family Justice Courts.
Muhammad Haleem, LL.D. (HC), HI was a Pakistani jurist who served as the 10th Chief Justice of Pakistan from 1981 to 1989, the longest serving Chief Justice in the history of the judicial branch in Pakistan. He was even endorsed by successive future regimes in Pakistan.
Chan Sek Keong is a Malayan-born Singaporean judge who served as chief justice of Singapore between 2006 and 2012.
Prince Sri Nagendra Singh was an Indian lawyer and administrator who served as President of the International Court of Justice from 1985 to 1988. He was one of the four judges from India to have been Judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the others being B. N. Rau (1952–1953) First Indian Judge at ICJ, R. S. Pathak (1989–1991) the 18th Chief Justice of India, and Dalveer Bhandari (2012–), former Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
Adolfo Sevilla Azcuna is a Filipino jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 2002 to 2009. He was appointed to the Court by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on October 24, 2002. As of November 2019 he was the Chancellor of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), having been appointed to that position by the Supreme Court of the Philippines on June 1, 2009. The Court granted the title of “Chancellor Emeritus” upon Ascuna who served until May 31, 2021. He was succeeded by Arturo Brion who served for 2 years and was replaced by Rosmari Carandang as the fourth Chancellor who took her oath on February 23, 2022.
Mohammad Hidayatullah OBE was the 11th Chief Justice of India serving from 25 February 1968 to 16 December 1970, and the sixth vice president of India, serving from 31 August 1979 to 30 August 1984. He had also served as the acting president of India from 20 July 1969 to 24 August 1969 and from 6 October 1982 to 31 October 1982 and from 25 July 1983 to 25 July 1983 and from 25 July 1984 to 25 July 1984. He is regarded as an eminent jurist, scholar, educationist, author and linguist.
Javed Iqbal ; is the retired chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of Pakistan, in office from 11 October 2017 to 3 June 2022. He is also a retired Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The legality of the Iraq War is a contested topic that spans both domestic and international law. Political leaders in the US and the UK who supported the invasion of Iraq have claimed that the war was legal. However, legal experts and other world leaders have argued that the war lacked justification and violated the United Nations charter.
Fali Sam Nariman was an Indian jurist. He was a senior advocate to the Supreme Court of India from 1971 and was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010. Nariman was an internationally recognised jurist on international arbitration. He was honoured with the 19th Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2018. He was one of India's most distinguished constitutional lawyers and argued several leading cases. He was the Additional Solicitor General of India from May 1972 to June 1975.
Benjamin Josses Odoki is a former Chief Justice of Uganda, former Supreme Court Justice of Eswatini, and current Chairman of the Committee of Constitutional Experts for Drafting the EAC Political Federation Constitution, the committee drafting the constitution for the East African Confederation. Odoki served as the tenth Chief Justice of Uganda from 2001 to 2013 after fifteen years as a Judge on the Supreme Court of Uganda. He was a State Attorney of Uganda previous to his appointment to the court in 1986.
Pavani Parameswara Rao was a Senior Advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India. Widely considered a doyen of Constitutional Law, he had argued a number of landmark cases before the Supreme Court. He died on 13 September 2017 in a private hospital in South Delhi following a cardiac arrest, India.
Adish C. Aggarwala is a jurist and the President of International Council of Jurists. Chairman of All India Bar Association,
Dalveer Bhandari an Indian jurist. He is currently one of the judges of the International Court of Justice. He is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India and former chief justice of the Bombay High Court, he was also a judge of the Delhi High Court.
Venu Rajamony is an Indian diplomat and professor affiliated with the Indian Foreign Service. He currently serves as faculty teaching Diplomatic Practice at the Jindal Global Law School of the O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana. On September 17, 2021, he assumed the role of Officer on Special Duty for External Cooperation in the Government of Kerala, holding the rank of Chief Secretary with an office at Kerala House, New Delhi. However, he resigned from this position on September 16, 2023, citing disagreements with the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He held the position of Ambassador of India to the Netherlands from 2017 to 2020. He also served as the Permanent Representative of India to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, overseeing India’s relations with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Dato Seri Paduka Steven Chong Wan Oon is a Brunei magistrate who was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of Brunei Darussalam in 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
