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. [1] 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. [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] He was named by the ILC as Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity, [5] a topic on which he has lectured widely. [6]
Prior to his arrival at George Washington University Law School in 1998, Murphy was the legal counselor at the Embassy of the United States, The Hague from 1995 to 1998; in this position, he argued several cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and represented the U.S. government in matters before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He also served as a staff attorney for the Legal Adviser of the Department of State (1987-1995). From 1985 to 1986, he was a law clerk for Senior Judge Thomas Aquinas Flannery of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He is a member of the Maryland bar.
In addition to his academic appointment, he frequently serves as counsel, expert, or arbitrator in various fora, such as in cases before the ICJ; [7] International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration; and as ad hoc judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. In 2022, Murphy was appointed by the President of the World Bank to chair a Court of Arbitration between Pakistan and India concerning the Indus Waters Treaty. In 2023, he was appointed as an arbitrator for a NAFTA-related dispute brought by the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission against the United States concerning the Keystone XL pipeline. In 2024, the U.S. government designated Murphy as one of four U.S. nationals to ICSID's Panel of Arbitrators.
Murphy received his S.J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law (1995; Ford Foundation Graduate Scholarship and Council on Foreign Relations Fellow), his LL.M. from the University of Cambridge (1987), his J.D. from Columbia Law School (1985; Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law ), and his B.A. ( magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from the Catholic University of America (1982). Murphy has published numerous articles and books on international law and U.S. foreign relations law. [8] He is a Member of the American Law Institute, where he serves as an adviser for the Restatement (Fourth) on the Foriengn Relations Law of the United States, and in 2021 was elected as a Member of L'Institute de Droit International.
Hisashi Owada is a Japanese former jurist, diplomat and law professor. He served as a judge on the International Court of Justice from 6 February 2003 until 7 June 2018, and was president of the court from 2009 to 2012. He is the father of Empress Masako and the father-in-law of the incumbent Emperor of Japan, Naruhito.
Peter Tomka is a Slovak judge of the International Court of Justice. Prior to his election to the ICJ in 2003, Tomka was a Slovak diplomat.
Bruno Simma is a German jurist who served as a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 2003 until 2012.
Philippe Joseph Sands, KC Hon FBA is a British and French writer and lawyer at 11 King's Bench Walk and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. A specialist in international law, he appears as counsel and advocate before many international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court.
International arbitration is arbitration between companies or individuals in different states, usually by including a provision for future disputes in a contract.
Stephen Myron Schwebel, is an American jurist and international judge, counsel and arbitrator. He previously served as judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (2010–2017), as a member of the U.S. National Group at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, as president of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal (1993–2010), as president of the International Court of Justice (1997–2000), as vice president of the International Court of Justice (1994–1997), and as Judge of the International Court of Justice (1981–2000). Prior to his tenure on the ICJ, Schwebel served as deputy legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State (1974–1981) and as assistant legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State (1961–1967). He also served as a professor of law at Harvard Law School (1959–1961) and Johns Hopkins University (1967–1981). Schwebel is noted for his expansive opinions in momentous cases such as Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua and Oil Platforms .
Ex aequo et bono is a Latin phrase that is used as a legal term of art. In the context of arbitration, it refers to the power of arbitrators to dispense with application of the law, if appropriate, and decide solely on what they consider to be fair and equitable in the case at hand. However, a decision ex aequo et bono is distinguished from a decision on the basis of equity and even tribunals with ex aequo et bono powers generally consider the law too. "Whereas an authorisation to decide a question ex aequo et bono is an authorisation to decide without deference to the rules of law, an authorisation to decide on a basis of equity does not dispense the judge from giving a decision based upon law, even though the law be modified".
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.
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.
Charles N. Brower is a former State Department official, international judge, and recognized expert in public international law and international dispute resolution. He has been a judge of the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal since 1983. He has also served as a Judge ad hoc in three cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) since 2014. He is currently affiliated with 20 Essex Street Chambers in London, UK.
Alan Vaughan Lowe is a barrister and academic specialising in the field of international law. Chichele Professor of Public International Law in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1999–2012; Emeritus Professor of International Law and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford, since 2012; visiting professor, University of Chichester, 2024.
Investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS), or an investment court system (ICS), is a set of rules through which states can be sued by foreign investors for certain state actions affecting the foreign direct investments (FDI) of that investor. This most often takes the form of international arbitration between the foreign investor and the state. As of June 2024, over US$113 billion has been paid by states to investors under ISDS, the vast majority of the money going to fossil fuel interests.
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.
Prince Bolasodun Adesumbo "Bola" Ajibola, SAN, KBE, CFR was a Nigerian jurist, who was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria from 1985 to 1991 and a judge of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994. He was president of the Nigerian Bar Association from 1984 to 1985. He was also one of five commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, organized through the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In 1979, he founded The Nigeria Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (NICArb) as the premier arbitration institute in Nigeria and it was duly incorporated in 1988 under the Companies Act as a legal entity Limited by Guarantee.
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.
David D. Caron was an American attorney who was the dean of the King's College London School of Law, and an emeritus professor of UC Berkeley School of Law. Caron was a Member of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and a Judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice. After his death it was said that "at (his) prime, (he) was arguably one of the top two or three arbitrators in the United States and in the world."
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.
Roberto Córdova was a Mexican jurist, international judge, and diplomat. Córdova served as a judge for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) between 1955 and 1964. He was the second Mexican to serve as an ICJ judge, following Isidro Fabela.