Philippe Kirsch

Philippe Kirsch (2006)

Philippe Kirsch QC OC (born April 1, 1947 in Namur , Belgium ) is a Belgian- Canadian lawyer and diplomat . From 2003 to 2009 he was a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and during this time also its president.

Life

Kirsch, who was born in Belgium, moved to Canada with his parents when he was 14. In 1966 he obtained a bachelor's degree from the Collège Stanislas in Montreal and then studied law at the University of Montreal , where he obtained his licentiate in 1969 and his Master of Laws in 1972 with a thesis on Le régime applicable à l'exploitation des ressources minérales des grands fonds marins acquired. In 1970 he was admitted to the Québec Bar .

After joining the Canadian diplomatic service in 1972, Kirsch initially worked for the Canadian Embassy in Peru , the Canadian UN Mission in New York and the department responsible for the United States in the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. From 1983 to 1988 he was Head of Legal Operations at the Canadian Foreign Ministry and then went to New York, where he represented Canada as a permanent representative at the United Nations . In 1992 he received another post in the Foreign Ministry, this time as Director General of the Bureau of Legal Affairs and in 1994 he was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister for Legal and Consular Affairs . Kirsch was twice the official representative of Canada before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and in the case Questions relating to the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite (Belgium v. Senegal) nominated ad hoc judge at the ICJ by Belgium . From 1995 to 1999 he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. From 1999 to 2003 he was Canadian ambassador to Sweden .

Kirsch is closely connected to the genesis of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In July 1998, for example, he was chairman of the conference of states in Rome for the establishment of the Court of Justice, which led to the adoption of the Rome Statute , and from 1999 to 2002 he headed the preparatory commission. Kirsch was sworn in as one of the first 18 judges on March 11, 2003 and was also elected President of the Court of Justice. He held this office until 2009.

Awards and memberships

Kirsch has received several awards for his services. In 1988 he was appointed Crown Attorney , in 1999 he received the Robert S. Litvack Human Rights Memorial Award , in the same year the Minister of Foreign Affairs' Award for Foreign Policy Excellence and in 2001 the William J. Butler Human Rights Medal Award . On November 4, 2009, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to international criminal law, particularly as President of the International Criminal Court .

Kirsch is chair of the Canadian Committee on International Humanitarian Law and a board member of the Canadian Council on International Law. He is also a member of the American Society for International Law . Since 2005 he has been a member of the Institut de Droit international .

Fonts

• The Rome Conference on an International Criminal Court: the negotiating process . With John T. Holmes Kirsch. In: American journal of international law . Vol. 93, No. 1, 1999, ISSN  0002-9300 , pp. 2-12.
• The International Criminal Court: Current Issues and Perspectives . In: Law and contemporary problems . Vol. 64, No. 1, 2001, ISSN  0023-9186 , p. 3.
• The birth of the international criminal court: the 1998 Rome Conference . With John T. Holmes Kirsch. In: Peace Research Abstracts . Vol. 39, No. 2, 2002, ISSN  0031-3599 , pp. 155-306.
• The role of the International Criminal Court in enforcing international criminal law . In: American University international law review . Vol. 22, No. 4, 2007, ISSN  1520-460X , pp. 539-547.

Web links

• Kurzbiographie on the side of the ICC (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philippe Kirsch, OC, QC, LL.M., LL.D (hon) , accessed March 16, 2020.