Erkki Kourula Politician
Erkki Kourula (born 1948) is a Finnish judge who currently serves as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was established by treaty and began in July 2002. The first election of judges to the court was held in 2003, when Judge Kourula was elected for an initial term of three years. He was re-elected in 2006 for a further nine-year term. He was elected from List B, the list of judges with specific experience and knowledge of international law. List A consists of judges who have experience in criminal law. At the ICC, Judge Kourula is a member of the appeals division, a position he has held since his election to the court. He is the first Finn to be elected as an International Criminal Court judge.Judge Kourula holds a degree in law from the University of Helsinki and a doctorate in international law from the University of Oxford. In 1979, he was appointed as a judge of first instance in Finland. Between 1982 and 1983, he was a professor of international law at the University of Lapland and he later worked in various roles within the Finnish government, including as the director-general of legal affairs in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, as ambassador to the Council of Europe, and as legal advisor at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, where he monitored the establishment of international tribunals to investigate allegations of war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. He was also the head of the Finnish delegation to the Rome Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, where the formation of the ICC was initially approved.He is married to Dr. Pirkko Kourula and they have two children. He speaks Finnish, English, French, Russian, Swedish and German.
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Office holder
| office | Judge of the International Criminal Court |
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