On November 3, the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly elected Professor Sean D. Murphy, Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law, to a second term on the U.N. International Law Commission (ILC). Last December, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry nominated Professor Murphy to stand for re-election.
Professor Murphy is one of 34 members from around the world elected to the ILC, which is charged with "the progressive development of international law and its codification." He is the only American on the Commission and was elected by receiving support, in a contested election, from 144 of the 193 U.N. member states.
During his first tenure, Professor Murphy was designated the ILC’s Special Rapporteur on Crimes against Humanity. In that capacity, he has been working on draft articles with commentaries that may serve as the basis for a treaty on the subject. This work has engaged him with numerous states from around the world, as well as with international lawyers in law faculties, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions. His work is recognized as path-breaking and, already, the ILC has approved 10 draft articles with commentaries, focused on issues of defining and preventing, as well as adopting national criminal laws on crimes against humanity.
GW Law students have benefited from Professor Murphy’s tenure on the ILC. Each summer, the law school funds two students to accompany him as research assistants, while on occasion Professor Murphy has arranged for students to work with other members of the Commission. To date, 10 students have traveled to Geneva to gain first-hand experience in international law and to interact with leading international lawyers. Further, through the GW Human Rights Clinic, numerous other students have provided research and writing assistance for the crimes against humanity project, including a major report issued in 2013 at the outset of the project.
GW Law's alumni from Jordan and Turkey, Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud and Professor Nilüfer Oral respectively, were also elected to the ILC. Ambassador Hmoud graduated with his LLM in 1993 and is currently the Legal Adviser to Jordan’s Foreign Ministry, having previously served as the Deputy Permanent Representative of Jordan to the U.N. Like Professor Murphy, he was re-elected to the ILC for his second term. Professor Oral, who was elected for her first term, teaches international law at Istanbul Bilgi University. She graduated with her SJD in 2012 and wrote her dissertation under the guidance of Associate Dean for Environmental Studies LeRoy C. Paddock and Professorial Lecturer David Freestone. Professor Oral was also one of Professor Murphy's students.
“It was an honor to be nominated by the U.S. government and a further honor to be re-elected by the U.N. General Assembly,” Professor Murphy said.