Professor Baek Jin-hyun, Candidate for 'UN Judicial Organ' ICJ Judge... First Korean Challenge in 80 Years

Baek Jin-hyun, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University (67), is challenging the election for judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the judicial organ of the United Nations.

The ICJ, established in 1945 to resolve legal disputes between countries, is known as the "World Court." It has 193 UN member states as parties. Since its founding, South Korea has never produced a judge at the ICJ, but this time, for the first time in about 80 years, it has nominated a candidate for the judge election.

Baek Jin-hyun, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 6th, Professor Baek plans to run in the ICJ judge election held at the end of 2026.

Professor Baek graduated from Seoul National University’s Department of Law and earned a Master of Laws from Columbia University in the United States and a Doctor of Philosophy in Law from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. After serving as a professor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in 1990 and as a professor of international law at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies in 1997, he held positions such as judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in 2009, president of the Asian Society of International Law in 2015, and president of ITLOS in 2017. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Institut de Droit International (IDI). Founded in 1873, IDI is a world-renowned academic association, and Professor Baek is the only Korean lifetime member.

An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "Professor Baek is an international law expert with extensive international judicial experience and academic background, making him the optimal candidate for ICJ judge."

The ICJ is an international organization that resolves legal disputes between states and provides advisory opinions on legal questions referred by the UN General Assembly and Security Council. It consists of 15 judges with a nine-year term. Every three years, five judges are replaced through elections, with the next election scheduled for the end of next year. Candidates must receive an absolute majority in simultaneous votes by both the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to be elected. So far, at least judges from eight countries, including Professor Baek, have announced their candidacies, indicating fierce competition.

South Korea’s decision to nominate a candidate for the ICJ judge election for the first time has raised high expectations for Professor Baek’s challenge. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained, "Based on our experience in the development of the rule of law and democracy, we have judged that advancing to the ICJ is necessary to contribute to the status and national dignity of Korea in the field of international law. We formed a consensus on the necessity of candidacy by consulting related ministries, academia, and the legal community, and as a result, Judge Baek was selected as the candidate."