Professor Shinya MURASE, Sophia University, Elected to the International Law Commission

November 18, 2011
Japanese

An election for membership of the International Law Commission (ILC) was held on Friday, November 18 (Thursday, November 17, local time) at the 66th United Nations General Assembly, and Prof. Shinya MURASE (current member of the ILC and Professor of Sophia University) was re-elected for the second term. He gained 152 votes out of 191 valid votes cast. He was the first out of eight members elected from the Asian-Pacific group.
Japan places great importance on establishing the "rule of law" in the international community to settle disputes in a peaceful manner and to bring about worldwide peace and prosperity. From this viewpoint, Japan believes that the development of international law is essential. As an organ of the General Assembly of the United Nations that aims for the progressive development of international law and its codification, the ILC has made a large contribution to the development of international law.
Prof. MURASE has been a member of the ILC since the by-election in 2009 and has quality contributed to its activities through making reports on shared natural resources, the Most-Favoured-Nations clause and treaties over time. Since the international law has been recently specialized and fragmented in each field such as international environmental law, international economic law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law and so on, Prof. MURASE insists that the ILC is invited to assume its role of ensuring the consistency among the principles and rules of the general international law by way of conducting a cross-cutting analysis of international rules which have been independently formulated and developed in each field. Prof. MURASE has thus underscored the need for the redefinition and activation of the role of the ILC.
The election of Prof. MURASE, which shows that the international community highly evaluates his past contribution, is the outcome of proactive campaigning by Japan, that attaches high values to the contribution to the ILC. His continuous contribution is also important for Japan to remain active in participating in and contributing to the development of international law through the ILC.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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