Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji

Biography

President of the Court since 11 March 2018. Assigned to the Appeals Division since 11 March 2018. Earlier served in Trial Division from March 2012 to March 2018. Elected from list A (competence in criminal law and procedure) on 16 December 2011. Judge as of 11 March 2012, for a term of nine years.  Assumed full time duty 16 March 2012. National of Nigeria.

Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Eboe-Osuji was the Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during which time he anchored the High Commissioner's interventions in cases involving human rights questions. In that capacity, he led the writing of amicus curiae submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and the United States Supreme Court. He served as principal appeals counsel for the Prosecution in the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and has held several posts at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including Head of Chambers and Lead Prosecution Trial Counsel.

He practiced law as a barrister before trial courts in Nigeria and Canada; and conducted appeals before the Court of Appeal for Ontario (Canada) and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Judge Eboe-Osuji taught international criminal law as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Canada, and has an extensive record of legal scholarship and publications, including the books titled International Law and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts, and Protecting Humanity (ed). He is the editor-in-chief of the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law. He served as legal expert to Nigeria's delegation to the ICC-ASP Special Working Group on the Definition of the Crime of Aggression.

He was called to the Bar in Nigeria (1986); Ontario, Canada (1992); and British Columbia, Canada (1992). He served as a pupil barrister and articled student-at-law under Chief Mike Ahamba SAN (of Ahamba & Associates, Owerri, Nigeria); Mr David W Scott QC (of Scott & Aylen, now Borden Lardner Gervais LLP, Ottawa, Canada); and, Dr Christopher Harvey QC (of Russell & DuMoulin, now Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver, Canada).

Judge Eboe-Osuji received his PhD degree from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (with thesis in international criminal law). He received his LLM degree from McGill University, Canada; and also did his Canadian law accreditation studies at McGill. He received the LLB degree from the University of Calabar, Nigeria.