Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah

Last updated

Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah (born 24 April 1942) [1] is a legal academic. He is an Emeritus Professor and former C. J. Koh Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, [2] the Tunku Abdul Rahman Professor of Law at the University of Malaya, [3] and the former head of the school of law at the University of Tasmania. [4] He is also a visiting professor at the Centre for Human Rights, London School of Economics. He has been arbitrator, counsel or expert in several leading investment arbitrations.

Sornarajah attended the Royal College Colombo and received law degrees from the University of Ceylon, Yale University, the London School of Economics and King's College London (PhD). He taught at the University of Ceylon from 1966 to 1973, at the University of Tasmania from 1974 to 1984, and the National University of Singapore since 1986. He has also been visiting faculty at several other universities. [5] He has been editor-in-chief of two journals, the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies from 1996 to 2000 and the Singapore Journal of International and Comparative Law (which he founded) from 1998 to 2000. [4] [5]

His book, The International Law on Foreign Investment (Cambridge University Press), is the leading [6] and a classic [7] text on foreign investment law, which is an area of public international law dealing with issues of protection of investments made by foreign investors currently in its fifth edition. [8]

His other books include Law of International Joint Ventures, [9] The Pursuit of Nationalized Property, [10] Resistance and Change in the International Law on Foreign Investment (Cambridge University Press) and The Misery of International Law (with John Linarelli and Margot Salomon, Oxford University Press).

In 2016, a book of essays in his honour was edited by Lim Chin Leng entitled "Alternative Visions in International Law: Essays in honour of Muthucumraswamy Sornarajah (Cambridge University Press 2016) He has sat as arbitrator on several arbitral tribunals involving foreign investment disputes. He also belongs to the Board of Advisors of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Project on Dispute Settlement. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. Jayakumar (Singaporean politician)</span> Singaporean politician

Shunmugam Jayakumar, often known as S. Jayakumar, is a Singaporean former politician, diplomat, jurist and author who served as 5th Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 2004 and 2009. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bedok SMC between 1980 and 1988, the Bedok division of Bedok GRC between 1988 and 1997, and later East Coast GRC between 1997 and 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National University of Singapore Faculty of Law</span> Law school in Singapore

The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law is Singapore's oldest law school. NUS Law was initially established in 1956 as the Department of Law in the University of Malaya, and subsequently, University of Singapore. After its establishment, NUS Law was Singapore's only law school for half a century, until the subsequent establishment of the SMU School of Law in 2007 and the SUSS School of Law in 2017. NUS Law is currently located at the NUS Bukit Timah Campus. The current dean of NUS Law is Andrew Simester. Internationally, NUS Law has been ranked twelfth by the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2023 and eleventh by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject in 2024.

International arbitration is arbitration between companies or individuals in different states, usually by including a provision for future disputes in a contract.

Tan Lee Meng is an emeritus professor in the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. He was first appointed as a Judicial Commissioner on 2 February 1997, and then appointed Judge in August 1997, serving until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 on 7 July 2013. He also completed two consecutive three-year terms of service as a Senior Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore. He returned to the NUS after his time in the judiciary, having made "outstanding contributions to the Supreme Court, the Legal Service and the legal profession." At the time of his appointment, Tan was the first ever academic to be appointed to the Supreme Court and his judgments were said to be "instructive, soundly reasoned, and easy to grasp."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arbitration</span> Method of dispute resolution

Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a neutral third party who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitration award'. An arbitration decision or award is legally binding on both sides and enforceable in the courts, unless all parties stipulate that the arbitration process and decision are non-binding.

Tan Cheng Han is a Singaporean lawyer and legal academic. Until 2012, he was the dean of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, where he taught contract law and company Law and directed the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business. From 2019 to 2022, he was the dean of the City University of Hong Kong School of Law and the chair professor of commercial law. He was also a consultant at TSMP Law Corporation. In August 2012, he was appointed the inaugural chairman of Singapore's new Media Literacy Council.

Emmanuel Gaillard was a prominent practicing attorney, a leading authority on international commercial arbitration, and a law professor. He founded the international arbitration practice of the international law firm Shearman & Sterling before launching Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, a global law firm dedicated to international arbitration, in 2021. He frequently acted as an arbitrator in international commercial or investment disputes.

Tai-Heng Cheng is a Singaporean legal scholar, lawyer, and international arbitrator. He currently resides in United States of America as a permanent resident.

Thomas W. Wälde, former United Nations (UN) Inter-regional Adviser on Petroleum and Mineral Legislation, was Professor & Jean-Monnet Chair at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), Dundee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thio Li-ann</span> Singaporean law professor

Thio Li-ann is a Singaporean law professor at the National University of Singapore. She was educated at the University of Oxford, Harvard Law School and the University of Cambridge. In January 2007, she was appointed a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) in Singapore's 11th Parliament.

James Richard Crawford, AC, SC, FBA was an Australian academic and practitioner in the field of public international law. He was a Judge of the International Court of Justice from February 2015 to his death in 2021. From 1990 to 1992 Crawford was Dean of the Sydney Law School where he was also the Challis Professor of International Law from 1986 to 1992. From 1992 to 2014, he was Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Law at Jesus College, Cambridge. He was formerly Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, also at Cambridge.

Mohamed Shibly Aziz, PC was a Sri Lankan lawyer. He served as Attorney General of Sri Lanka from 1995 to 1996 and served in the Constitution Council of Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2018.

Albert Jan van den Berg is a founding partner of Hanotiau & van den Berg in Brussels, an emeritus Professor of Law at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC and at the University of TsinghuaArchived 2018-08-10 at the Wayback Machine School of Law, Beijing and a member of the advisory board and Faculty of the Geneva Master of Laws in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), Geneva.

Pierre-Marie Dupuy is a French jurist. Since 1981 he is a law professor at Panthéon-Assas University, of which he is on leave since 2000. From 2000 to 2008 he was Professor of International Law at the European University Institute in Florence. Since 2008 he works in the same capacity at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Csongor István Nagy Ph.D., LL.M., S.J.D, dr. juris is a professor of law in Hungary, the head of the Department of Private International Law at the University of Szeged, Faculty of Law, in Szeged, Hungary, research chair and head of the Federal Markets “Momentum” Research Group at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and an attorney-at-law admitted to the Budapest Bar. Furthermore, he is visiting professor at the Central European University, the Sapientia University of Transylvania and the Riga Graduate School of Law. He is associate member at the Centre for Private International Law at the University of Aberdeen. He is admitted to the Budapest Bar and arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Budapest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Jones (international arbitrator)</span>

Douglas Samuel Jones, is an independent international arbitrator based in London, Sydney and Toronto. He is a door tenant at Atkin Chambers, London, a member of Sydney Arbitration Chambers, and a member of Toronto Arbitration Chambers in Toronto, Canada. He serves as an International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Walker</span>

Janet Walker is a Chartered Arbitrator with offices in Toronto, Canada, London, England and Sydney, Australia. She is a Canadian scholar and author in the fields of Private International Law and Civil Procedure at Osgoode Hall Law School. She is also a Distinguished Research Professor at York University. Walker is married to Australian lawyer and international arbitrator, Doug Jones AO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean D. Murphy</span> American International Law scholar

Sean David Murphy is an American international law scholar and practitioner currently serving as the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., where he has been teaching since 1998. His primary areas of scholarly research are public international law, foreign affairs and the Constitution of the United States, international organizations, international dispute settlement, and law of the sea. Murphy served for ten years on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and is a former president of the American Society of International Law. He was elected twice by the United Nations General Assembly to serve as a Member of the U.N. International Law Commission (ILC) during 2012-2022. He was named by the ILC as Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity, a topic on which he has lectured widely.

J. Martin Hunter was a British solicitor specializing in arbitration. He was an emeritus professor at Nottingham Trent University and was a visiting lecturer, fellow or professor at various universities around the world. He died on 9 October 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Tan</span> Singaporean legal scholar

David Tan is a Singaporean law professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. He was the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs from January 2015 to June 2021. His legal scholarship covers intellectual and intangible property law. He is also a fine art and fashion photographer, with exhibitions presented by Cartier and Versace.

References

  1. Curriculum vitae Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine from Singapore International Arbitration Centre, retrieved 2011-01-31.
  2. NUS law faculty listing, retrieved 2011-01-30.
  3. Faculty listing Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine , University of Malaya, retrieved 2011-01-30.
  4. 1 2 Jayasuriya, Ranga (June 27, 2010), Govt.plays KP card, Lakbimanews Online, archived from the original on 2011-07-22, retrieved 2011-01-31.
  5. 1 2 Curriculum vitae from National University Singapore, retrieved 2011-01-31.
  6. NUS Law
  7. Cambridge University Press
  8. Review in International and Comparative Law Quarterly. Review in British Year Book of International Law. Review, in World Trade Review.
  9. Review in International and Comparative Law Quarterly.
  10. Review in International and Comparative Law Quarterly
  11. Board of advisors of the project on dispute settlement Archived 2010-07-05 at the Wayback Machine , UNCTAD, retrieved 2011-01-31.