Judge Liu Daqun(China) was elected by acclamation as Vice-President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by the permanent judges in an Extraordinary Plenary Session on 21 October 2015. Judge Liu will succeed Vice-President Agius (Malta) and will serve for a two year term starting November 17, 2015.

Judge Liu has enjoyed a distinguished academic career. In 1994 he was appointed a Professor of International Law at China University of Political Science and Law and a Professor at the 2011 Plan China Collaborative Innovation Center of Judicial Civilization in 2013. He regularly lectures across China and internationally on international criminal law.

Judge Liu Daqun is a judge in the Appeals Chamber for both the ICTY and ICTR and for the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT). He was appointed as an ICTY judge by the United Nations Secretary General in 2000 and re-elected by the General Assembly in 2001 and 2004. From 2001 until 2005, Judge Liu was the Presiding Judge of Trial Chamber I presiding over the Naletilić and Martinović, Blagojević and Jokić, and Halilović cases, amongst others. He is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Institute de Droit International.

Since 2005, Judge Liu has worked on appeals from both the Tribunal and the ICTR where he presided over the Šainović et al case before the ICTY and Gatete case before the ICTR. Judge Liu is a member of the Appeals Chamber in all three current ICTY Appeals cases (Stanišić and Simatović, Stanišić and Župljanin and Prlić et al).

Prior to being elected to the Tribunal, Judge Liu held a variety of positions in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, culminating in his appointment in 1999 as Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Jamaica and as Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the International Seabed Authority. Judge Liu was also Deputy Head and Chief Negotiator of the Chinese Delegation to the Rome Conference on the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a United Nations court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990’s. Since its establishment in 1993 it has irreversibly changed the landscape of international humanitarian law and provided victims an opportunity to voice the horrors they witnessed and experienced.

More information, see, http://www.icty.org