Professor Dapo Akande, one of Britain's leading international lawyers, has been elected as a judge of the UN's International Court of Justice, The Guardian reports. He will sit on the 15-member court in The Hague for a term of at least nine years.
The result is a significant diplomatic success for the UK, which has had no judge on the court since 2017, when Sir Christopher Greenwood unexpectedly lost his seat to an Indian candidate. Akande first qualified as a lawyer in Nigeria and is a professor of public international law and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, as well as an elected member of the UN International Law Commission. He said he was deeply honoured and pledged to decide cases independently and impartially. The court rules on disputes between states and has recently issued high-profile opinions on Gaza and the Chagos Islands.
Source: The Guardian
