United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

MR. LUCIUS CAFLISCH

Professor Emeritus, Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies, Geneva
Former Chairperson, the International Law Commission

Mr. Lucius Caflisch (Switzerland) is Emeritus Professor of the Graduate Institute of

International and Development Studies, which he also directed between 1984 and 1990. He
served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, between 1998 and
2006. Mr. Caflisch is a member and former Chairperson of the United Nations International
Law Commission. He served as Chairperson of the Commission’s Working Group on the
topic “Effects of armed conflicts on treaties” between 2007 and 2008 and was appointed
Special Rapporteur in 2009. Mr. Caflisch also served as member of several arbitral tribunals
and as Counsel before the International Court of Justice.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Caflisch was the Legal Advisor to the Swiss Federal Department of
Foreign Affairs, a capacity in which he represented Switzerland at major international
negotiations leading, inter alia, to the creation of the International Criminal Court. He is a
member of the Institut de Droit International, of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and of
the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in the Framework of the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe.

Mr. Caflisch is the author of numerous publications, including two courses at the Hague
Academy, “Cent ans de règlement pacifique des différends interétatiques” and “Règles
générales du droit des cours d’eau internationaux”, published in the Collected Courses of the
Hague Academy International Law.

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