Former foreign affairs minister Bogdan Aurescu was elected as a member of the United Nations’ International Law Commission.

The term of office of the thirty-four members of the International Law Commission for the 2012-2016 quinquennium expired at the end of 2016. Thus, new members were elected on November 3, for five-year terms (January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2021).

A total of 158 states, from the total of 193 UN member states, voted for Romania’s candidate, according to a statement from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

“The election of professor doctor Bogdan Aurescu confirms the UN member states’ appreciation for the Romanian School of International Law,” reads the statement.

In addition to his diplomatic career, Bogdan Aurescu is a professor at the Faculty of Law within the University of Bucharest, where he began his academic career in 1998. He is also the president of the Romanian Branch of the International Law Association, member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at Hague, arbitrator appointed by Romania according to art. 2 of Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and alternate member of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.

He was a secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2014, and foreign affairs minister between November 24, 2014 and November 17, 2015.

Bogdan Aurescu also represented Romania in its dispute with Ukraine over a large petrol and gas-rich area of the Black Sea. In February 2009, UN's International Court of Justice ruled largely in Bucharest’s favour on the ‘Snake Island’ case, ending a 40-year old dispute. Romania got sovereignty over 9,700 square kilometres of disputed waters.

Aurescu is also the author, co-author and coordinator of 15 books on international law, and author of over 140 articles, studies, comments, and reviews published in Romanian and foreign journals of international law and international relations.

Find the other new members of the UN International Law Commission elected on November 3 here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com