Dapo Akande elected to international court after Chagos case role

Professor Dapo Akande has been elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice, becoming the first UK judge on the UN court in almost a decade. Andy Burnham praised the result as a sign of Britain’s renewed role in international affairs, while Akande’s appointment has drawn attention to his earlier legal work opposing the UK’s position on the Chagos Islands.

In 2018, Akande represented Zambia at the ICJ in proceedings concerning the islands’ decolonisation and challenged Britain’s argument that the court lacked jurisdiction. That year, he also advised then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn that UK air strikes in Syria would breach international law. Akande, a British-Nigerian scholar and Oxford professor, will serve among the court’s 15 judges for at least nine years.