Erkki Kourula re-elected as judge for the International Criminal Court
26 January, 2006
Dr Erkki Kourula, former Director General for Legal Affairs at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has been re-elected a judge for the International Criminal Court. Kourula was initially elected a judge for the International Criminal Court in February 2003 when the court began its work.
There are 18 judges in the International Criminal Court of which six were outgoing. Kourula, the joint Nordic candidate, received the most votes after Bulgarian Ekaterina Trendafilova and Latvian Anita Ušacka. The other judges elected were Akua Kuenyehia from Ghana, Sang-hyun Song from South Korea and Hans-Peter Kaul from Germany.
The International Criminal Court is the first permanent global criminal court. Its jurisdiction covers the world’s most heinous atrocities, such as mass murders, crimes against humanity and gross war crimes that have taken place after the ratification of the court’s statutes on 1 July, 2002. The court’s jurisdiction completes the juridisction of nation states. The court is located in the Hague, the Netherlands.
Kourula joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in1984 specialising in international law. Prior to his appointment as Director General for Legal Affairs, he was the Finnish Amabassador to the Council of Europe, Minister Counsellor and Legal Advisor at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, and held various posts at the Legal Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Kourula was actively involved in the negotiations to establish the International Criminal Court as head of the Finnish delegation. While at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN, he was able to monitor the founding of the international tribunals to investigate war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Erkki Kourula is a Doctor of Philosophy in International Law at the University of Oxford. Prior to his career in foreign office, he held various research posts in the fields of international, constitutional and administrative law at the University of Helsinki, University of Oxford, Academy of Finland and the United Nations in Geneva. He was also a Professor of International Law at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi.
Further information: Legal Counsellor Tapio Puurunen, Unit for Public International Law, tel. 09 1605 5588