The members of Essex Court Chambers are pleased to announce that Professor Dapo Akande, Professor of Public International Law in the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, has accepted an invitation to join Chambers in order to develop his practice as adviser and advocate in public international law disputes before international and domestic courts and tribunals. Professor Akande will continue to pursue his research and teaching activities at Oxford.
Joe Ferrigno, Senior Clerk has said “We are delighted to welcome Professor Akande to Chambers. Professor Akande is globally recognised as one of the leading public international lawyers of his generation. Public international law is, and has been, an extremely important practice area at Essex Court Chambers; Professor Akande’s arrival clearly demonstrates our commitment to further strengthening our capabilities in PIL.”
Professor Akande has acted as counsel, advocate, adviser or consultant in cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the European Court of Human Rights, international arbitral tribunals in mixed disputes, World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Area Dispute Settlement panels. He has also acted as consultant/adviser in cases in national courts, including the UK Supreme Court.
Professor Akande is one of the authors of Oppenheim’s International Law: The United Nations (2017, OUP), which was awarded the 2019 Certificate of Merit by the American Society of International Law. He is one of the editors of the Oxford Guide to International Humanitarian Law (2020, OUP); of Human Rights and 21st Century Challenges: Poverty, Conflict and the Environment (2020, OUP), and of Practitioners Guide to the Application of Human Rights Law in Armed Conflict (2016, OUP). He was a member of the International Advisory Panel for the American Law Institute’s project on the Restatement Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States (2018). He has acted as consultant, expert, or adviser on international law issues to United Nations bodies, the African Union Commission, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). He was recently nominated by the UK for election to the United Nations International Law Commission.
Professor Akande will join Chambers from Monday 14th December 2020.
