Taslim Olawale Elias

Taslim Olawale Elias ( born November 11, 1914 in Lagos, † 14 August 1991 ) was a Nigerian lawyer. He worked among others as Minister of Justice of Nigeria and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the country and was from 1976 until his death as a judge at the International Court of Justice operates, including from 1981 to 1985 as the first African President of the Court. He is considered one of the best known and most influential jurists in the history of his homeland.

Life

Taslim Olawale Elias was born in 1914 in Lagos and completed his legal education at the University of London, in which he obtained in 1946 a Bachelor of Laws ( LL.B. ) and received his doctorate three years later. In his home country of Nigeria, he was following independence in 1960, among others, from 1960 to 1966 as Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1972 as Attorney General and from 1972 to 1975 as Chief Judge of the Supreme Court. During this time he was instrumental in the establishment of the Nigerian judicial system and the design of its legal basis. In 1963 he was a member of a commission of experts which drafted the Charter of the Organization of African Unity.

In addition to his work at the national level, he was from 1961 to 1975 Member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations. He was then in February 1976, Judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where he worked until his death. During this time, he worked from 1979 to 1982 as Vice- President of the Court, and has been in this role after the death of Humphrey Waldock Acting President from August 1981 until early 1982. From 1982 to 1985 he was the first elected for a regular term president of a African country in the history of the Court. To His successor his compatriot Bola Ajibola was to end its regular modern office, according to the traditions of the Court, was elected.

In addition, he was president of the Nigerian Association of International Law and the African Association of International Law and in 1975 president of the World Association of Judges ( World Association of Judges ). At the University of Lagos, he worked as a professor and from 1966 to 1972 as dean of the law school. He also worked as a lecturer at the Hague Academy of International Law, whose board of trustees he served from 1975.

Taslim Olawale Elias was married from 1932 and the father of three sons and two daughters. He died in 1991 in his hometown.

Awards

Taslim Olawale Elias was a member of the Institut de Droit International and was accepted in 1973 as an honorary member of the American Society of International Law. In 1979 he the Nigerian Merit ( Nigerian National Order of Merit Award) was awarded, in addition he has received honorary doctorates from various universities. The journal Leiden Journal of International Law in 2008 devoted to the life and work of Taslim Olawale Elias, a special edition. At the University of Lagos, the legal department of the library bears his name.

Works (selection)

  • The Nature of African Customary Law. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1956
  • Ghana and Sierra Leone: The Development of Their Laws and Constitutions. Stevens, London 1962
  • The Nigerian Legal System. Routeledge & Kegan Paul, London 1963
  • Africa and the Development of International Law. A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden 1972
  • Africa Before the World Court University of Nairobi, Nairobi 1981
  • The International Court of Justice and Some Contemporary problem. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague and Boston 1983
August 14 Judges of the International Court of Justice Jules Basdevant Percy Spender Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Manfred Lachs Nagendra Singh Stephen M. Schwebel Rosalyn Higgins Hisashi Owada Peter Tomka Christopher Weeramantry Integrated Authority File
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