Speaker details

Biography

Professor Sean D. Murphy is the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Having received law degrees from Columbia and Cambridge Universities, Professor Murphy began his career as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked on matters relating to oceans and environment, dispute resolution, and the law of war. For three years, he was the Legal Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, providing support to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, serving as U.S. Agent to the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, and arguing cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including the Lockerbie case, the Oil Platforms case, and the Nuclear Weapons advisory opinion. As a member of the U.N. International Law Commission from 2012 to 2022, he served as Special Rapporteur for Crimes against Humanity. As an academic, he has published widely in the field of international law, such as his treatises on Principles of International Law, on International Law relating to Islands, on The Law of U.S. Foreign Relations (with Swaine), and on Litigating War: Arbitration of Civil Injury by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission (with Snider and Kidane). Since entering academia, Professor Murphy has served as counsel, arbitrator or ad hoc judge in cases before the ICJ, the International Criminal Court, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, ICSID, the PCA, and U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea Annex VII tribunals. He is an associate member of L’Institut de Droit International and was appointed to ICSID’s Panel of Arbitrators. Professor Murphy is a Member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and a former President of the American Society of International Law.