8 January 2014
UvA awards honorary doctorate to professor James Crawford
On 8 January 2014, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) will award a honorary doctorate to professor James Crawford during the UvA Dies Natalis celebration.
James R. Crawford (1948), a member of the SHARES advisory board, is receiving the honorary doctorate in recognition of his major contribution to the field of international law, and most notably the law of responsibility.
James Crawford is professor of international law at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Jesus College at Cambridge and a research chair at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He is also a member of the Institut de droit international.
Crawford is one of the most influential scholars in the field of public international law today, having played a seminal role in the development of the law of international responsibility. From 1992 until 2001 he was a member of the United Nations International Law Commission, where he was responsible for drafting the document which later became the Statute of the International Criminal Court. He was also in charge of finalising the codification and progressive development of the law on state responsibility, resulting in the publication of the authoritative ILC Articles on State Responsibility. In his many groundbreaking scholarly publications, including most recently in The Law of International Responsibility (2013), he has defined the concept of the role of the law of responsibility as a cornerstone of the international rule of law.
He is also recognised as a leading expert on the formation of states. His book The Creation of States in International Law (1981) is considered the most authoritative reference on issues surrounding the formation of new states.
Crawford furthermore plays an exceptionally important role in the practice of international law. He frequently acts as counsel in cases brought before the most important international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the World Trade Organization.
Professor André Nollkaemper, professor of public international law at the UvA, has been designated honorary supervisor.
See for the press release here.