Decision Making in International Courts and Tribunals

Dame Rosalyn Higgins

Rosalyn Higgins is the former President of the International Court of Justice.

Higgins was the first female judge to be appointed to the ICJ and was elected President in 2006.

Theodor Meron

Theodor Meron was the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) until 2005, and now serves as a judge on the Appeals Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the ICTY.

Born in Kalisz, Poland, Judge Meron received his legal education at the Hebrew University (M.J.), Harvard Law School (LL.M., J.S.D.) and Cambridge University (Diploma in Public International Law). Since 1977, he has been a Professor of International Law and, since 1994, the holder of the Charles L. Denison Chair at New York University School of Law. In 2000-2001, he served as Counselor on International Law in the U.S. Department of State.

Brigitte Stern

Brigitte Stern is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Research Centre in International Law at the University of Paris, Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Edith Brown Weiss

Edith Brown Weiss is Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law at Georgetown Law and Co-Director of the Joint Degree in Law and Government program at Georgetown Law.

Professor Brown Weiss is highly active in the areas of public international, environmental, and water resources law. In September 2002 she was appointed to the 3-member Inspection Panel of the World Bank and from 2003-2007 served as the President of the Inspection Panel, an appointment at the Vice-Presidential level. Her past professional experience includes positions as Associate General Counsel for International Activities at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1990-92, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Politics at Princeton University, and Research Associate at Columbia University and the Brookings Institution.

Her numerous professional activities in both international and environmental law have included positions as President of the American Society of International Law, April 1994-96, chair of the Committee for Research in Global Environmental Change of the Social Science Research Council, 1989-94, U.S. Special Legal Advisor to the North American Commission on the Environment 1996-2002, and elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and the Commission on Environmental Law of the IUCN, where she is a member of the Steering Committee. She has been a member of the National Academy of Science's Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources, NAS Water Science and Technology Board, the NAS/Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Territories Panel on Sustainable Water Supplies in the Middle East, and the NAS Environmental Studies Board. She served on the Board of Directors of the Japanese Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, the Advisory Council of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Council of Advisors to the Cousteau Society, and on the Board of Trustees for the Center for International Environmental Law.

Professor Brown Weiss is a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law; Journal of International Economic Law; and International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics; and is the faculty adviser to the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.

She has published numerous articles in international and environmental law, and is the author of many books, including Fresh Water and International Economic Law (co-author, 2005), Reconciling Environment and Trade (co-author, 2001), Engaging Countries: Strengthening Compliance with International Environmental Accords (co-author, 1998), International Environmental Law and Policy (co-author 1998, 2007), and In Fairness to Future Generations: International Law, Common Patrimony, and Intergenerational Equity (1989), which received the Certificate of Merit Award in 1990 from the American Society of International Law, and has been published in French, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese.

In 2003, Professor Brown Weiss received the ABA Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy, in 1994 the Elizabeth Haub Prize for international environmental law given by the Free University of Brussels and the International Council of Environmental Law (ICEL), and in 1996 the Prominent Women in International Law Award from the American Society of International Law.