Judge Sang-Hyun SONG (Republic of Korea), President

Judge Sang-Hyun Song was appointed President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, 2009. Assigned to the Appeals Division, he was elected from the Asian Group of States, list A.

He initially joined in 2003, when he became a judge for a term of nine years. Judge Song has extensive practical and academic experience in the area of court management, criminal procedure, and the law of evidence. For thirty years, he taught as a professor of law at Seoul National University Law School, beginning in 1972. He has also held visiting professorships at a number of law schools, including Harvard, New York University and Melbourne.

Judge Song also worked as Judge-Advocate in the Korean Army and as foreign attorney in a New York law firm. He serves as a member of the advisory committee to the Korean Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice. As such, he participated in the reform of the national litigation system, particularly in the reform of its Penal Code, the Code and the Court Rules of Criminal Procedure, and criminal court processes.

Judge Song has vast experience in relevant areas of international law, principally in the domains of international humanitarian law and human rights law. He has worked as an attorney and visiting professor in a number of foreign countries, and is the Vice-President of UNICEF/ Korea and co-founder of the Legal Aid Centre for Women, and of the Childhood Leukemia Foundation in Seoul. Judge Song is also the respected author of several publications on relevant legal issues.