About Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf
Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf has served on the International Court of Justice since 2009. He served as the court’s president from 2018 to 2021.
Judge Yusuf holds a Juris Doctor (Somali National University) and holds a PhD in international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies of Geneva. Prior to his doctorate, Yusuf completed post-graduate studies in international law at the University of Florence in Italy.
He is fluent in Somali, Arabic, English, French, and Italian.
Yusuf’s previous positions include: Legal Adviser and Director of the Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs for UNESCO from March 2001 to January 2009, Legal Advisor (1994–1998) and Assistant Director General for African Affairs, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Vienna (1998–2001), Representative and Head of the New York office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (1992–1994) and Chief of the Legal Policies Service of UNCTAD (1987–1992), Lecturer in law at the Somali National University (1974–1981) and at the University of Geneva (1981–1983), and Somali delegate to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (1975–1980). He has also been guest professor and lecturer at a number of universities and institutes in Switzerland, Italy, Greece and France.
About the William W. Bishop Lecture in International Law
The William W. Bishop Lecture in International Law brings international luminaries to Michigan Law to share their perspectives and expertise with our students and professors. Honorees present a marquee lecture as well as engage more broadly with the Law School community.
The Bishop Lecture was established to honor William Bishop, a 30-year member of the Michigan Law faculty and his generation’s foremost international law scholar. Professor Bishop served on the Permanent Court of Arbitration, advised the U.S. delegation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1946, and wrote the leading casebook on international law in the 1950s. His contributions helped solidify Michigan Law’s standing as a preeminent institution for the study of international law.
