Xue Hanqin

Xue Hanqin (Chinese薛捍勤, Pinyin Xue Hanqin; born September 15, 1955 in Shanghai) is a Chinese lawyer. She is since 1980 in various legal and diplomatic positions working for the Chinese Foreign Ministry and beyond professor at several Chinese universities. From 2002 to 2010 she was a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations. Since June 2010 she has been in succession by Shi Jiuyong Judge at the International Court of Justice.

Life

Xue Hanqin was born in 1955 in Shanghai and graduated from 1977 to 1980, first studying at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. She then studied in the years 1981/1982 at Peking University, where she earned a diploma in the field of international law. At Columbia University she obtained beyond 1983 a Master of Laws ( LL.M. ) and doctorate in 1995. It acts at various Chinese universities as an adjunct professor, so since 1994 at the University of Beijing, since 1998 at the Diplomatic Academy of China Foreign Affairs University and since 2008 at the Wuhan University. Since 2004 she has also been a professor at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

From the year 1980, she worked in various positions in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, including from 1999 to 2003 as Director General of the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs. From 2003 to 2008 she served as an ambassador for her homeland in the Netherlands and as Permanent Representative of China to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and then as Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN). She was also a member or leader of the Chinese delegation at meetings of the UN General Assembly, in a number of international conferences and bilateral negotiations with other states. From 2002 to 2010 she was a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations.

In June 2010 she was elected Judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. After the British Rosalyn Higgins is the second woman since the establishment of the Court, who was elected regularly to the judge. She follows her compatriot Shi Jiuyong, who had previously withdrawn from this position, and held office until the first regular end of his term in February 2012. In November 2011, she was re-elected for a further term of nine years.

Xue Hanqin is married and has one daughter.

Works (selection)

• A Complete Compilation of Treaties on Trade and Economy in between China and Foreign Countries. Beijing 1996 ( as co-author )
• Commentary on the Charter of United Nations. Chinese Original Title:联合国宪章 诠释. Taiyuan 1999 ( as co-author )
• Transboundary Damage in International Law. Series: Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law. Volume 27, Cambridge 2003