Theodor Meron is elected president of the International Criminal Tribune for the former Yugoslavia

On October 19, the judges of the ICTY elected, by acclamation, Judge Theodor Meron (United States of America) as President of the Tribunal and Judge Carmel Agius (Malta) as Vice-President for a two year term starting November 17, 2011.

Since his election to the Tribunal by the U.N. General Assembly in March 2001, Judge Meron has served on the Appeals Chamber, which hears appeals from both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Between March 2003 and November 2005 he served as President of the Tribunal. A leading scholar of international humanitarian law, human rights, and international criminal law, Judge Meron wrote some of the books and articles that helped build the legal foundations for international criminal tribunals. A Shakespeare enthusiast, he has also written articles and books on the laws of war and chivalry in Shakespeare’s historical plays.

Prior to immigrating to the United States from Israel, Judge Meron was a member of the Israeli Foreign Service. His duties included that of Legal Adviser to the Foreign Ministry and that of Ambassador to Canada and to the United Nations in Geneva.

Since 1977, Judge Meron has been a Professor of International Law and, since 1994, the holder of the Charles L. Denison Chair at New York University Law School. In 2000-2001, he served as Counselor on International Law in the U.S. Department of State. Between 1991 and 1995 he was also Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, and he has been a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard and at the University of California (Berkeley). He received his legal education at the Universities of Jerusalem, Harvard (where he received his doctorate), and Cambridge. In 2006, he was named Charles L. Denison Professor Emeritus and Judicial Fellow at the New York University Law School.