Yuji Iwasawa
{{Short description|Japanese jurist}}{{Expand Japanese|topic=bio}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Yuji Iwasawa
| native_name = {{nobold|岩沢雄司}}
| native_name_lang = ja
| image = Yūji Iwasawa 20180827.jpg
| imagesize =
| alt = Iwasawa in 2018
| caption = Iwasawa in 2018
| order =
| office = President of the International Court of Justice
| deputy =
| term_start = 3 March 2025
| term_end =
| predecessor = Nawaf Salam
| successor =
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|6|4|df=y}}
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| restingplacecoordinates =
| birthname = Yuji Iwasawa
| nationality = Japanese
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| education = University of Tokyo
Harvard Law School
University of Virginia School of Law
| occupation = Jurist
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| order2 = Judge of the International Court of Justice
| predecessor2 = Hisashi Owada
| termstart2 = 22 June 2018
}}
Yuji Iwasawa (岩沢雄司; born 4 June 1954) is a Japanese jurist. He has been a member of the International Court of Justice since 22 June 2018, following the resignation of Judge Hisashi Owada. Before he was elected a judge, he was a professor of international law at the University of Tokyo.{{Cite web |last=Iwasawa |first=Yuji |title=CCPR/SP/67 |url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CCPR/Membership/Iwasawa.pdf |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights}} He was re-elected on 12 November 2020.{{cite news |title=General Assembly, in Second Secret Ballot Round, Elects Five Judges to Serve Nine-Year-Long Terms on International Court of Justice {{!}} Meetings Coverage and Press Releases |url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/ga12285.doc.htm |accessdate=12 April 2021 |work=www.un.org |publisher=UN News Centre |date=12 November 2020 |language=en}} He formerly chaired the United Nations Human Rights Committee.{{cite web |last1=Fox |first1=Mike |title=Yuji Iwasawa S.J.D. '97 Elected International Court of Justice Judge |url=https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/201806/yuji-iwasawa-sjd-97-elected-international-court-justice-judge |publisher=University of Virginia School of Law |date=22 June 2018}}
On 3 March 2025 he was elected President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), succeeding Nawaf Salam, who had resigned to become Lebanon's prime minister.{{Cite web |title=Japanese judge Yuji Iwasawa elected new ICJ president: Court |url=https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/world-news/841347/japanese-judge-yuji-iwasawa-elected-new-icj-president-court/en |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=LBCIV7 |language=en}}
Education and career
File:Yuji Iwasawa and Yoko Kamikawa cropped Yuji Iwasawa and Yoko Kamikawa 20180627.png, Minister of Justice in 2018]]Iwasawa was born in Tokyo in 1954. After graduating from Kunitachi High School, he matriculated at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) in 1973. He went on to specialise in public law at the university's Faculty of Law and graduated with an LL.B. in 1977. He later attended Harvard Law School in America, where he earned an LL.M. degree.
After a brief period teaching at Osaka Metropolitan University, he attended the University of Virginia School of Law, also in America, where he completed an S.J.D. degree in 1986. From 1991 to 1993, he taught at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, part of the University of Cambridge. In 1996, he became an assistant professor at UTokyo, while intermittently spending a few years at the Lauterpacht Centre again. He was appointed Professor of International Law at UTokyo's Faculty of Law in 2005 and remained in that role until 2018.
In 2018, following the resignation of ICJ Judge Hisashi Owada, also Japanese, he ran in the judicial election and was elected. He was re-elected in 2020 and is expected to serve as a judge until 2030. On 3 March 2025, Iwasawa was elected President of the ICJ following the resignation of Nawaf Salam. He is the second Japanese national and UTokyo alumnus to hold the position, the first being Hisashi Owada.{{Cite web |date=2025-03-04 |title=国際司法裁判所、所長に岩沢雄司氏 日本人2人目 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOGR03C5L0T00C25A3000000/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=日本経済新聞 |language=ja}}
References
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Category:University of Tokyo alumni
Category:Harvard Law School alumni
Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni