Prof. Sean Murphy

Sean D. Murphy is the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Since 2012, he has been a Member of the U.N. International Law Commission, which appointed him as Special Rapporteur for Crimes against Humanity. From 1987 to 1998, he served in the U.S. Department of State Office of the Legal Adviser working inter alia on matters relating to international humanitarian law, the law of the sea, and international dispute settlement. Since entering academia, Professor Murphy has served as counsel, arbitrator or ad hoc judge in inter-State and investor-State cases, including before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the International Criminal Court. As counsel, he has represented numerous governments, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Professor Murphy has lectured widely on subjects of international law, inter alia for the U.N. Regional Training Courses in International Law held in Egypt and in Ethiopia, for the International Law Seminar for African Universities in Ghana, and for the Summer Academy on the Continental Shelf in Tanzania. A former President of the American Society of International Law, Professor Murphy has published numerous books and articles on international law, such as his treatise on Principles of International Law (3d ed. 2018), his Hague Academy of International Law lectures on International Law relating to Islands (2016), and his book Litigating War: Arbitration of Civil Injury by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission (2013) (with Snider and Kidane). He served for a decade on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law, and as a member of International Law Association committees on the use of force and on sea-level rise.

Prof. Sean Murphy

Curatorium Member