Judge Liesbeth Lijnzaad
Member of the Tribunal since 1 October 2017; President of the Chamber for Marine Environment Disputes since October 2023
Born: Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2 October 1960.
Education: History studies, University of Amsterdam (1984-1986); Master’s Degree (International Law), University of Amsterdam (1979-1985); research training course (international and European law), T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague (1986); Master’s Degree (Dutch law), University of Amsterdam (1988); Ph.D. dissertation, Limburg University (now: Maastricht University) (1994).
Professional Experience:
Lecturer, Limburg University, Maastricht (1986-1994); Assistant Legal Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands (1994-1999), Deputy Head, International Law Division (1999-2006); Legal Adviser and Head of the International Law Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands (2006-2017); Endowed Professor (part-time), Practice of International Law, University of Maastricht (2011-present).
Participation in many negotiations, amongst others: UN Agreement on Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (1994-1995), Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (1996-1998), ISA Code on prospecting and exploration for poly-metallic nodules (1997-2000), UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (1998-2001); maritime boundary negotiations, Germany/Netherlands (1998-2014), Saint Kitts and Nevis/Netherlands (2012-2014), France/Netherlands (2004-2015), UNESCO 2nd Protocol to Hague Convention for Protection of Cultural Property in event of armed conflict (1999), ISA Code on prospecting and exploration for poly-metallic sulphides (2001-2008), Amendments to the IMO Convention and Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA) (2003-2005).
Chair, European Union Working Party on the Law of the Sea (COMAR) on behalf of Luxemburg and the Netherlands (1997, 2004-2005); President, Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (2000); Chair, Legal Working Group, International Commission for the International Tracing Service (2005-2006); President, Council of International Seabed Authority (2008); Chair, Strategic Study Group, International Commission for the International Tracing Service (2009-2010); Co-Chair, UN General Assembly Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to study issues relating to conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (2010-2015); Vice-Chair, 31st International Conference of Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva (2011); Acting President, Administrative Council, Permanent Court of Arbitration (2011-2017).
Agent in various cases before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the US Supreme Court (2010-2013).
Member, Permanent Court of Arbitration (2008 - present); Conciliator under Annex V of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (2016-present); Arbitrator under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (2016-present).
Member: Correspondent, Nemesis – Netherlands Journal on Women and Law (1996-2003); Advisory Council Oxfam NOVIB, the Netherlands (1998-2006); Board of Editors, Netherlands International Law Review (2000-present); Treasurer and Board member, Netherlands Association for Women and Law, Clara Wichmann (2004-2009); ex officio member, Netherlands Advisory Council on International Law (CAVV) (2006-2017); Comité Ad Hoc du Droit International (CAHDI), Council of Europe (2006-2017, President 2013-2014); European Union Working Party on Public International Law (COJUR) (2006-2017, President 2016); Board member, Royal Netherlands Society for International Law (2008-present); Board member, Theo van Boven Fund, Maastricht University (2013-present); Permanent Court of Arbitration (2006-present); International Institute for Humanitarian Law, San Remo (2008-present); Editorial Committee, ICRC Commentary on the First Geneva Convention (2016); Editorial Committee, ICRC Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention (2017); Editorial Committee, ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention (2020).
Publications: “Reservations to the Women’s Convention” (in Dutch), Nemesis 1988; “Convention 121: Unconstitutional withdrawal” (in Dutch) (with M.J.A.C. Driessen), 64 NJB 1989; “Supervision of human rights’ provisions in the Vienna Final Act” (in Dutch) (with A.P.M. Coomans), in: Helsinki rapport 5, Nederlands Helsinki Comité, 1989; “Dutch objection to the GDR reservation to the UN Convention on Torture” (in Dutch), 14 NJCM Bull. 1989; “Kissing a toad, the real meaning of the Women’s Convention” (in Dutch), Nemesis 1991; “Initiating the CSCE Supervisory procedure, the cases of the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia” (with A.P.M. Coomans), in: The Human Dimension of the Helsinki Process, The Vienna Follow-up meeting and its Aftermath; A. Bloed and P. van Dijk (eds.), Dordrecht, 1991; “Paradoxical universality, or the limitations of the law of treaties” (in Dutch), in: Universaliteit van mensenrechten, fundamenteel en controversieel; Th. van Boven and C. Flinterman (eds.), Leiden, 1992; “Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict: the Iraq-Kuwait War” (with G.J. Tanja), NILR 1993; “Disappointing freedom, the position of women in post-communist Poland” (in Dutch), Nemesis 1993; “The relevant reality, or women’s standard of life” (in Dutch), in: De toenemende betekenis van economische, sociale en culturele mensenrechten; A.P.M. Coomans et. al. (eds.), Leiden 1994; The Women’s Convention, picture of a treaty (in Dutch), A.W. Heringa, J. Hes and L. Lijnzaad (eds.), Antwerpen, Apeldoorn, 1994; “About gender roles and the role of the Women’s Convention” (in Dutch), in: Het Vrouwenverdrag, een beeld van een verdrag, A.W. Heringa et. al. (eds.), Antwerpen, Apeldoorn, 1994; “Women of no consequence, the inadequacy of the international protection against trafficking”, in: Combatting traffic in persons, SIM Special 17 - Utrecht 1995; Reservations to UN Human Rights Treaties, ratify and ruin? (Dissertation, University of Limburg 1994), Dordrecht-Boston-London, 1995; “With all the respect due to her sex, the protection of women in times of war” (in Dutch) (with M Meijer), Nemesis essays 3 (1996); The Women’s Convention in the Dutch legal order, chapters 2 and 3 (in Dutch); J.C. Hes and C.E. van Vleuten (eds.), Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, Den Haag, 1996; “Between misunderstanding and unwillingness, the position of women in humanitarian law” (in Dutch), 110 Kernvraag 1996/3; “Chronicle International Law, Diversity or fragmentation” (in Dutch), Nemesis 1997; “Chronicle International Law, Mainstreaming or Muddling Through” (in Dutch), Nemesis 2000; “Trouble in Tiraspol, some reflections on the Ilascu case and the territorial scope of the European Convention on Human Rights”, in: Hague Yearbook of International Law 2002; “Von Clausewitz was a gentleman, women and contemporary armed conflict” (in Dutch), Nemesis 2003; “Some remarks on the human rights aspects of sanctions”, in: Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties; F. Coomans and M. Kamminga (eds.), Antwerpen-Oxford, 2004; Making the voice of humanity heard, essays on humanitarian assistance and international humanitarian law in honour of HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, L. Lijnzaad, J. van Sambeek and B. Tahzib-Lie (eds.), Leiden-Boston, 2004; “How not to be an occupying power, some reflections on Security Council Resolution 1483 and the contemporary law of occupation”, in: Making the voice of humanity heard, essays on humanitarian assistance and international humanitarian law in honour of HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, L. Lijnzaad et. al. (eds.), Leiden-Boston 2004; The Netherlands in Court, essays in honour of Johan G. Lammers, N. Blokker, R. Lefeber, L. Lijnzaad and I. van Bladel (eds.), Leiden-Boston, 2006; ‘The 1907 Hague Law of Naval Warfare Today’ (in Dutch) in: Old treaties in a new era, one hundred years since the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, Reports of the Netherlands Society of International Law Vol.135, 99-129, 2007; “Sending Dutch troops abroad, some domestic legal aspects”, in: The Netherlands in Court, essays in honour of Johan G. Lammers; N. Blokker et. al. (eds.), Leiden-Boston, 2006; Chapter on International Humanitarian Law in Handbook International Law (in Dutch) (with M.C. Zwanenburg), in: Handboek Internationaal Recht, Den Haag 2007; Protecting Cultural Property in Armed Conflict, an Insight into the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict, N. van Woudenberg and L. Lijnzaad (eds.), Leiden-Boston, 2010; “Sleeping Beauty, the untold story of the (first) Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention”, in: Protecting Cultural Property in Armed Conflict, Insight into the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict, N. van Woudenberg and L. Lijnzaad (eds.), Leiden-Boston, 2010; “Formal and informal processes in the contemporary law of the sea at the United Nations, a practitioner’s view”, in: German Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 57 (2014); “Declarations of competence, a very European Affair”, in: Peaceful Order in the World’s Oceans, Essays in Honor of Satya N. Nandan, M.W. Lodge and M.H. Nordquist (eds.), Leiden-Boston, 2014; Le juge et la coutume internationale/The judge and international custom, L. Lijnzaad (ed.), Council of Europe, Leiden-Boston, 2016; “Customary law before Dutch Courts: the Nyugat II case and beyond”, in: Le juge et la coutume internationale/The judge and international custom, L. Lijnzaad (ed.), Council of Europe, Leiden-Boston, 2016; The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity: Siamese Twins? in: The Marine Environment and United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life below Water; Myron H.Nordquist, John Norton Moore, and Ronan Long eds., Leiden-Boston 2018; 33 - 49; The UN Fish Stocks Agreement as a Metaphor, or the Law of the Sea as a Gendered Process, in: Gender and the Law of the Sea, Irini Papanicolopulu ed., Leiden 2019; 149 – 161; Het probleem van Zwitserse kaas: Sharia voorbehouden, Europese strategieën en bezwaren (in Dutch: The problem of Swiss cheese: Sharia reservations, European strategies and objections), in: Recht van de Islam 32, teksten van het op 29 oktober 2017 te Leiden gehouden 35ste RIMO-symposium, Vereniging voor het Recht van de Islam en het Midden-Oosten, Den Haag 2019; Pauline Kruiniger redactie; 9 – 17; The Committee on Rules and Judicial Practice of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, in: Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (online) (2020); The Smurfette principle, some reflections about gender and the nomination of women to the international bench, in: Identity and Diversity on the International Bench, who is the Judge?, Freya Baetens ed.; OUP 2020; 29 - 49; Dispute settlement for Marine Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction: not an Afterthought, in: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Dispute Resolution in the Law of International Watercourses and the Law of the Sea; Hélène Ruiz-Fabri, Tamar Meshel, and Marco Benatar eds.; Brill|Nijhoff 2020; 147 – 182; “As time goes by, a preliminary inquiry into the ‘object and purpose’ of the Law of the Sea Convention”, in: The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – A System of Regulation, Kristina Siig, Birgit Feldtmann and Fenella Billing (eds.), Routledge 2024, 264-281; “Going for a test drive? Some observations on Expert Manuals in the laws of armed conflict”, in: Vol. 104, nrs. 920 - 921, ICRC 2022 International Review of the Red Cross, 1930-1947; “Swimming into deep water, article 91(3) GC III and the successful escape of prisoners of war by sea”, in: The European Union's contribution to International Peace and Security – A legal practitioners' perspective, Liber Amicorum Gert Jan van Hegelsom, Steven Blockmans and Stephan Marquardt (eds.), Brill 2022, 310-332; and “The San Remo Manual on the Law of Naval Warfare – from Restatement to Development?” in: Unconventional Lawmaking in the Law of the Sea: Current Practice and Future Prospects, Natalie Klein (ed.), OUP 2021, 21-43.
Distinctions: Knight, Order of Orange-Nassau (2010).
