Thomas Buergenthal

Judge Thomas Buergenthal is the American judge on the International Court of Justice also known as the World Court. The Court is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. He was nominated to the Court by the United States and elected by the U.N. General Assembly and the Security Council. Prior to his election to the Court, Judge Buergenthal was the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School. Judge Buergenthal came to the United States at the age of 17. He spent the first 11 years of his life in various German camps and is one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia and New York University Law School, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. He received his LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in International Law from Harvard University. Considered one of the world’s leading international human rights experts, Judge Buergenthal served as judge and later president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.