Professor Dapo Akande was elected a judge of the International Court of Justice on Tuesday for a nine-year term, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said.
He is Chichele Professor of Public International Law at Oxford and a barrister at Essex Court Chambers.
The FCDO said the UK has not had a judge on the court for almost a decade. It described the election as following a UN vote in which he received support from a majority of UN member states.
The term covers 2027 to 2036, according to the UK election brochure. He was elected alongside other judges, whom he referred to as “the other colleagues elected today”.
On 17 July he received 43 nominations from national groups, the brochure said. The candidate brochure said that was the highest number received by any candidate in this election.
He is a dual UK-Nigerian national. The FCDO said he originally qualified as a lawyer in Nigeria and has nearly three decades of experience as a scholar and practitioner.
His CV lists qualification as a barrister and solicitor at the Nigerian Law School in 1993 and an LLM from the London School of Economics in 1994. He has held academic posts in British universities for over 25 years.
At Oxford he was Professor of Public International Law from 2014 to 2023 and has been a Fellow of All Souls College since 2023. He has been a barrister at Essex Court Chambers since 2020.
He is an elected member of the UN International Law Commission, with a term of 2023 to 2027. Since 2026 he has also been judge ad hoc at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, nominated by Ghana, and since 2024 he has sat on the ICSID panel of arbitrators.
The FCDO said he has acted as counsel, adviser and expert before international courts and tribunals, including the ICJ. His CV lists him as counsel for the UK as intervenor in The Gambia v. Myanmar from 2022 to 2026, and counsel for Japan in the advisory proceedings on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 2022 to 2024.
It also lists him as counsel and advocate for Uganda in the reparations phase of the Armed Activities case from 2018 to 2022, and for Zambia in the Chagos Islands advisory opinion in 2018.
The FCDO said he has advised governments from states across all five UN regional groups, and international organisations including the UN and the African Union.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “This election is a clear signal to our partners that the UK is back on the world stage and ready to play our part in ensuring global stability and upholding the rule of law.”
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Everywhere I go around the world, people tell me how impressive Professor Akande is and we have been proud to support his campaign.”
Akande said: “I am deeply honoured to be elected to the International Court of Justice.” He added: “I pledge to serve with independence and to deciding cases on the basis of a faithful and impartial application of the law.”
The FCDO said the UK campaign was backed by the Prime Minister, UK ministers and diplomats across the world.