Judge Theodor Meron, Charles L. Denison Professor of Law Emeritus and judicial fellow, has been named an Honorary Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) by Queen Elizabeth II. His investiture took place in London on January 15.
A leading scholar of international humanitarian law, human rights, and international criminal law, Meron helped build the legal foundations for international criminal tribunals. Elected to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in March 2001, Meron served on the Appeals Chamber for both the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He was elected president of the tribunal from 2003 to 2005 and again in 2011, and was appointed president of the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in March 2012. The Secretary General of the UN has recently appointed him for another term as President of the Mechanism.
“I am grateful to HM The Queen and the government of the United Kingdom for the honor they have bestowed upon me,” Meron says. “I regard it as recognition of the overarching importance, in these difficult times, of accountability, justice, and international humanitarian law, which I had the privilege to serve during two decades as judge and president of UN war crimes tribunals.”
Meron was co-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of International Law and counselor in international law to the US Department of State. In 2010, he was elected honorary president of the American Society of International Law. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Society of International Law, the French Society for International Law, the Institute of International Law, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
A Shakespeare enthusiast, he has also written extensively on the laws of war and chivalry in Shakespeare’s history plays. He received his legal education at Hebrew, Harvard, and Cambridge universities.
Among other honors, Meron has been awarded the Manley O. Hudson Medal of the American Society of International Law and the Charles Homer Haskins Prize of the American Council of Learned Societies, and he is an officer of the (French) Legion of Honor, as well as a grand officer of the (French) National Order of Merit. He was granted a doctorate honoris causa by the University of Warsaw. He is also a visiting professor of law at the University of Oxford, an honorary visiting fellow of Trinity College, and a visiting fellow of Mansfield College.
Founded by King George III in 1818, the Order of St. Michael and St. George is awarded for service in the Commonwealth or in a foreign country outside the United Kingdom.
Posted January 16, 2020