An advocate of the High Court of Kenya,she has acted as counsel and consultant to governments and non-governmental organisations on questions of international law before domestic and international courts including the International Court of Justice. In 2016,she was appointed by Kenya to be a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague from 2017 to 2022. In 2021,she was elected as a member of the International Law Commission from 2023 to 2027.
Early life and education
Okowa was born in Kericho on 1 January 1965 to Luo parents. She graduated at the top of her class with a Bachelor of Law (LLB) with First Class Honours from the University of Nairobi,Kenya in 1987. Okowa was the first woman to be awarded a first-class honours degree in the history of the Faculty of Law of the University of Nairobi.[1] She was called to the Kenyan Bar as an Advocate in 1990.
Okowa then studied at Wadham College,Oxford on a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship,obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1990. She completed her doctoral thesis (D.Phil.) at Oxford in 1994 under the supervision of Professor Sir Ian Brownlie,the Chichele Professor of International Law. Her monograph on State Responsibility for Transboundary Air Pollution[2] published by Oxford University Press remains the definitive work on the legal challenges that environmental harm presents for traditional methods of accountability in International Law.[3]
Okowa is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the African Yearbook of International and Comparative Law and of the Advisory Board of the African Association of International Law.[5] She is a member of The Society of Legal Scholars.
Okowa sits on the International Advisory Board of the Stockholm Centre for International Law and the Executive Committee of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S).[3]
Okowa was appointed by Princeton University's Center for Human Values[6] as a Fellow in Law and Normative Thinking[7] for 2024-25.
The government of Kenya nominated Okowa for election to the UN International Law Commission (ILC) in May 2021.[27][28] She was co-nominated by the United Kingdom and endorsed by the African Union.[29] Okowa received 162 votes in the United Nations General Assembly,becoming the first African woman elected to serve as an ILC member for a period of five years,effective January 1,2023.[30][31][32][33] She was appointed the Chair of the ILC's Drafting Committee for its Seventy-fifth Session (2024).[34]
State Responsibility for Transboundary Air Pollution in International Law (Oxford University Press,2000) ISBN9780198260974
Environmental Law and Justice in Context, Phoebe Okowa and Jonas Ebbesson (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2009) ISBN9780521879682
Journal articles
‘The Pitfalls of Unilateral Legislation in International Law: Two Case Studies’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 69, Issue 3 (2020) pp.685–717
‘Sovereignty Contests and the Exploitation of Natural Resources in Conflict Zones’, Current Legal Problems, Vol. 66, Issue 1 (2013) pp.33–73
‘The International Court of Justice and the Georgia/Russia Dispute’, Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 11, Issue 4 (2011) pp.739–757
‘State and Individual Criminal Responsibility in Internal Conflicts: Contours of an Evolving Relationship’, Finnish Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 20 (2009) pp.143–188
‘Case Concerning Ahmadou Sadio Diallo (Republic of Guinea v. Democratic Republic of Congo)’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 57, Issue 1 (2008) pp.219–224
‘Congo’s War: The Legal Dimension of a Protracted Conflict’, British Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 77, Issue 1 (2006) pp.203–255
‘Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 55, Issue 3 (2006) pp.742–753
‘Procedural Obligations in International Environmental Agreements’, British Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 67, Issue 1 (1996) pp.275–336
‘The EC and International Environmental Agreements’, Yearbook of European Law, Vol. 15, Issue 1 (1994) pp.169–192
Chapters in books
‘Atmospheric Pollution in International Law’, in Lavanya Rajamani and Jacqueline Peel (eds.), Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (Oxford University Press, 2021) ISBN9780198849155 pp.475–491
‘Principle 18: Notification and Assistance in Case of Emergency’, in Jorge E. Viñuales (ed.), The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: A Commentary (Oxford, 2015) ISBN9780199686773 pp.471–492
‘The International Court and the Legacy of the Barcelona Traction Case’, in Charles Jalloh and Olufemi Elias (eds.), Shielding Humanity: Essays in International Law in Honour of Judge Abdul Koroma (Brill, 2015) ISBN9789004236509 pp.104–132
‘The Security Council, the African Union and the International Criminal Court: Anatomy of a Problematic Relationship’, in Jonas Ebbesson, Marie Jacobsson et al. (eds.), International Law and Changing Perceptions of Security: Liber Amicorum Said Mahmoudi (Brill Nijhoff, 2014) ISBN9789004274570 pp.228–234
‘Interpreting Constitutive Instruments of International Criminal Tribunals: Reflections on the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, in Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Olufemi Elias and Panos Merkouris (eds.), Treaty Interpretation and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: 30 Years On (Martinus Nijhoff, 2010) ISBN9789004181045 pp.333–355
‘Issues of Admissibility and the Law on International Responsibility’, in Malcolm Evans (ed.), International Law (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2010) pp.472–503
‘Environmental Justice in Situations of Armed Conflict’, in Phoebe Okowa and Jonas Ebbesson (eds.), Environmental Law and Justice in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2009) ISBN9780521879682 pp.231–252
‘The Settlement of International Environmental Disputes: A Re-appraisal’, in Malcolm Evans (ed.), Remedies in International Law: The Institutional Dilemma (Hart Publishing, 1998) ISBN9781901362350 pp.157–172
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