Profile

Judge Stephen M. Schwebel
(10 March 1929 - 9 April 2026)
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Harvard University, B.A. magna cum laude with highest honours in government (1950); Cambridge University, studies in international law (1951); LL.B., Yale Law School (1954). Doctor honoris causa, Bhopal University, India (1982).

Admitted to the Bar of the State of New York (1955); of the Supreme Court of the United States (1965); and of the District of Columbia (1976).

Attorney, White & Case, New York (1954-1959).

Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard University (1959-1961).

Professor of International Law and subsequently Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Organization, the School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. (1967-1981). Visiting lecturer or professor at Cambridge University (1957, 1983); the Australian National University (1969); the Hague Academy of International Law (1972); the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva (1980); and at other universities or institutes in the United States and elsewhere.

Assistant Legal Adviser, Department of State (1961-1966); Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (1966-1967); Consultant to the Department of State (1967-1973). Counselor on International Law, Department of State (1973-1974); Deputy Legal Adviser, Department of State (1974-1981).

Legal Adviser to the United States delegation, and Alternate Representative in the Sixth Committee, during sessions of the United Nations General Assembly (1961-1965). United States representative and chairman of the United States delegation to various committees of the United Nations, including the Special Committee on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States (1964); the Special Committee on the Question of Defining Aggression (1971); and the UNCTAD Working Group on a Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States (1973-1974).

Member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations (1977-1981). Chairman of the Drafting Committee (1978); Special Rapporteur on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1977-1981).

Participated as Associate Representative, Representative, Counsel or Deputy Agent of the United States in various cases before the International Court of Justice (between 1962 and 1980). Member of the Board of Arbitration in British Petroleum Company v. Iran and the National Iranian Oil Company (1982-1985) and arbitrator or president in other international commercial arbitrations (since 1988).

Executive Vice-President and Executive Director of the American Society of International Law (1967-1973). Honorary Vice-President (since 1983). Honorary President (since 1996).

President of the Administrative Tribunal of the International Monetary Fund (since January 1994).

Member of the Board of Editors, American Journal of International Law (1967-1981); Honorary Editor (since 1996). Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Committee, International Legal Materials (1967-1973).

Member of the Institute of International Law; the American Society of International Law; the American Branch of the International Law Association; the American Bar Association; and the Council on Foreign Relations. Honorary Member of the Indian Society of International Law. Member of the International Advisory Committee of the Cambridge University Research Centre in International Law; the Board of Electors of the Whewell Professorship of International Law of Cambridge University; and the Board of Overseers' Committee to Visit the Harvard Law School. Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition.

Author of The Secretary-General of the United Nations: His Political Powers and Practice, 1952; The Effectiveness of International Decisions, 1971 (as editor); "Aggression, Intervention and Self-Defence in Modern International Law", Recueil des cours, Hague Academy of International Law, 1972; reports to the International Law Commission on the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses; International Arbitration: Three Salient Problems (1987); Justice in International Law (1994); and some one hundred articles, notes and book reviews in legal and other publications. Research and drafting assistant to United Nations Secretary-General Trygve Lie in the writing of In the Cause of Peace, 1954.