Dame Rosalyn Higgins

By Lesley Dingle and Daniel Bates

Dame Rosalyn Higgins, former President of the International Court of Justice

  • 1937: Born 2nd June, Kensington, London, neé Cohen
  • 1948-56: Burlington Grammar School
  • 1956-59: Girton College, Cambridge LLB
  • 1958: UK Intern, UN Office of Legal Affairs
  • 1959-61: Commonwealth Fellow, Yale Law School
  • 1960: Brooking Institute Washington
  • 1961: Married Terrence Langley Higgins, later Baron Higgins of Worthing, KBE
  • 1961-63: Post-Doctoral Fellow, London School of Economics
  • 1962: JSD Yale
  • 1963-74: Staff Specialist in International Law, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House
  • 1972-74: Vice-President American Society of International Law
  • 1974-78: Fellow, LSE, International Relations Department
  • 1976: Called to the Bar
  • 1978-81: Professor of International Law, University of Kent
  • 1981-95: Professor of International Law, LSE
  • 1984-95: Member, UN Committee on Human Rights
  • 1986: Queen’s Counsel
  • 1989: Bencher, Inner Temple
  • 1991: Hague Lecturer
  • 1995: Dame Commander of the British Empire - DBE
  • 1995-2006: Judge, International Court of Justice
  • 2006-09: President, ICJ

Honorary doctorates, prizes include

  • 1980:  Dr hc Univ. of Paris XI
  • 1998:  Manley Hudson Medal
  • 1988:  Membre de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France)
  • 1995:  Hon. LLD, LSE
  • 1996:  Hon LLD, Cambridge
  • 2002:  Hon. DCL Oxford
  • 2007:  Balzan Prize, International. Balzan Foundation
  • 2011:  The Hague Prize