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Nigeria-born law professor, Dapo Akande, was on Friday elected to the International Law Commission (ILC).
He was jointly nominated by the United Kingdom (UK) Nigeria, Japan, Kenya, and Slovenia, the first to be so sponsored by countries from four different United Nations regional groups.
British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, said at a press conference moments after the election that Akande’s exceptional expertise and experience would help him make a valuable contribution to the commission’s mandate.
“He is not just the best of British, he is one of the very best internationally, and will make an outstanding member of the International Law Commission,” Truss said of Akande.
For his part, Akande said he was “thrilled, humbled and deeply honoured to have been elected” to the commission.
He expressed gratitude to “those who supported my campaign” and looked forward to “working with states and other members to strengthen, codify and develop international law.
Akande has over 25 years of legal experience and he is currently a Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, as well as a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
He has written more than 60 publications, and is the founder of EJIL:TALK!, the widely read European Journal of International Law blog, as well as a board member for several journals, societies and civil society organisations around the world.
Raised in Ibadan, Oyo State, he qualified as a lawyer from the Nigerian Law School after obtaining his LLB at Obafemi Awolowo University.
Akande began his legal career as a Research Assistant to Judge Bola Ajibola, KBE SAN, and he is an Editorial Board Member for the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law.