Charles C. Jalloh

Dr. Charles C. Jalloh is Distinguished University Professor at Florida International University (FIU), South Florida’s public law school, a member of the UN International Law Commission, where he was elected by his peers as Chair of the Drafting Committee for the 70th (2018) session and General Rapporteur for the 71st (2019) session. He is Founding Editor of the African Journal of Legal Studies and the African Journal of International Criminal Justice and a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.

A prolific scholar, he has published widely on issues of international law, including articles in top journals such as American Journal of International Law, International Criminal Law Review, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Penn State Law Review, Michigan Journal of International Law, and Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. He has books with prestigious university presses and other leading publishers. These include as editor: The Sierra Leone Special Court and Its Legacy: The Impact for Africa and International Criminal Law (Cambridge, 2014 hardback, 2015 paperback); Shielding Humanity: Essays in International Law in Honour of Judge Abdul G. Koroma, (Brill, 2015, with Femi Elias); Promoting Accountability Under International Law for Gross Violations in Africa: Essays in Honor of Prosecutor Hassan Jallow (Brill, 2015, with Alhagi Marong); and four volumes of the first comprehensive Law Reports of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Brill, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2021, with Simon Meisenberg). His recent works include The International Criminal Court in an Effective Global Justice System (Elgar, 2016, with Linda Carter and Mark Ellis); The International Criminal Court and Africa (Oxford University Press, 2017, with Ilias Bantekas) and The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights in Context: Development and Challenges (Cambridge, 2019, with Kamari Clarke and Vincent Nmehielle). His monograph, The Legal Legacy of the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2020. The book was the subject of a micro-symposium of the FIU Law Review.

Called to the Bar in 2004, he has advised governments and international organizations on issues of domestic and international law and appeared in proceedings before international tribunals. His practice experience includes as counsel in the Canadian Department of Justice, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, an associate legal officer in the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda working on high profile cases involving the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a legal adviser in the Special Court for Sierra Leone where he was duty counsel and head of the public defender’s office in The Hague trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, and as a visiting professional, in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In 2015 and 2018, Professor Jalloh was External Counsel representing the African Union before the Appeals Chamber of the ICC in The Hague in two separate proceedings involving two African heads of state. He has given over 200 invited lectures including at Oxford, Yale and Penn law schools, the U.S. State Department, the UN General Assembly, the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Between 2012-2014, he co-chaired the International Criminal Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law. For several years, he was member of the Advisory Panel to the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Advisory Board of the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association.

He  is Founder of the African Court Research Initiative and the Center for International Law and Policy in Africa, both funded by the Open Society Foundations. He has also engaged in extensive service to the international legal profession, inter alia, as member and chair of the Panel of Experts on the Election of the Prosecutor established by the ICC Assembly of States Parties , an Independent Legal Expert for the Directorate of Legal Affairs of the African Union Commission, the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide, the Council of Advisers on the Application of the Rome Statute to Cyberwarfare and on the Advisory Group for the ASIL Taskforce on Policy Options for U.S. Engagement with the ICC.

His education includes a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Guelph, a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Civil Law degrees from McGill University, a Barrister-at-Law from the Law Society of Upper Canada and a Master’s in International Human Rights Law, with distinction, from Oxford University, where he was a Chevening Scholar. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) specializing in International Law from the University of Amsterdam.

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Latest News

• Dr. Charles C. Jalloh, former Fulbright Chair in International Law, named Distinguished University Professor
• Professor Charles C. Jalloh presents in Austria and Italy
• The UN International Law Commission appoints Professor Charles C. Jalloh as a Special Rapporteur
• Professor Jalloh elected to the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law
• The UN General Assembly Re-elects Professor Jalloh to the International Law Commission
• Professor Jalloh Speaks at the Nuremberg Academy Forum and the African Union Commission’s Multi-stakeholder Conference on Transitional Justice in South Sudan
• Professor Charles C. Jalloh named winner of 2021 Real Triumphs Faculty Award
• Professor Jalloh Speaks at Georgetown Law Conference
• Book Symposium: The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, by Charles Jalloh
• On UN International Law Commission, professor tackles world’s biggest issues through teamwork