The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague elected Lebanese judge Nawaf Salam as its president for a three-year term succeeding US Judge Joan Donoghue.
Salam is the first Lebanese and second Arab to occupy this position, after the former Algerian Foreign Minister and President of the Constitutional Court, Mohamed Bedjaoui.
Salam, who currently holds the highest judicial position in the world, joined the ICJ in 2018.
The International Court of Justice comprises 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.
The Court may entertain two types of cases: legal disputes between States submitted to it by them and requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to by UN organs and specialized agencies.
The Court, dubbed the World Court, is the principal judicial body of the United Nations.
Former Lebanese Foreign Minister Fouad Ammoun also served as a judge in the Court between 1965 and 1976 and was elected vice president.
Salam, whose name was recently put forward as a candidate for prime ministry, previously served as Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN between 2007 and 2017. He represented his country in the Security Council in 2010 and 2011 and chaired its work in May 2010 and September 2011.
He also taught contemporary history at the Sorbonne University and international relations and law at the American University of Beirut, where he headed the Department of Political Science and Public Administration from 2005 to 2007.
Nawaf Salam holds a state doctorate in political science from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, a doctorate in history from the Sorbonne University, and a master’s degree in laws from Harvard University.
He has many books on politics, history, and law, the most recent of which is “Lebanon Between Past and Future,” published in Beirut in 2021.
