James Crawford (jurist)

James Richard Crawford, AC, SC, FBA (14 November 1948 – 31 May 2021) was an Australian academic and practitioner in the field of public international law. He was elected as Judge of the International Court of Justice for a full term of 9 years in November 2014 and took his seat on the court in February 2015. From 1990 to 1992 Crawford was Dean of the Sydney Law School where he was also the Challis Professor of International Law from 1986 to 1992. From 1992 to 2014, he was Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Law at Jesus College, Cambridge. He was formerly Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, also at Cambridge. Born in Adelaide in South Australia in 1948, Crawford attended Brighton Secondary School and the University of Adelaide as an undergraduate, receiving his Bachelor of Laws degree with Honours in 1971 and a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in English history and politics) in the same year. During his time at the University of Adelaide, he first came in contact with international law, with the undergraduate course in the subject taught by D. P. O'Connell, who was later to be appointed Chichele Professor of International Law at the University of Oxford. Crawford later followed O'Connell to Oxford, was accepted to University College and completed his doctorate on the creation of states in international law under the supervision of Ian Brownlie, graduating in 1977. From Oxford, Crawford returned to the University of Adelaide in 1977, lecturing in international law and constitutional law, and was awarded a personal chair in 1983. In 1982, he accepted a position at the Australian Law Reform Commission and served until 1984, where he produced a series of reports on subjects such as the recognition of aboriginal customary law, sovereign immunity, and the reform, patriation and federalisation of Admiralty Law and jurisdiction. He remained in Adelaide until 1986, when he was appointed to the Challis Professorship of International Law at the University of Sydney.