Litigating Before the International Court of Justice

In this seminar, Peter Tzeng will share his experience working as a clerk to Judge Hisashi Owada at the International Court of Justice, and also representing States before the ICJ. In particular, he will discuss the structure and operation of the Court behind the scenes, and how ICJ litigation teams are organized and function. He will also be open to questions relating to careers in public international law in general.

About the presenter

Peter Tzeng is an associate in the International Litigation & Arbitration Department of Foley Hoag LLP. He exclusively advises and represents countries (sovereign States) on matters of public international law and international investment law. A recipient of the Diploma of The Hague Academy of International Law and a former law clerk of the International Court of Justice, he speaks all six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish) at varying levels of proficiency.

Peter is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he remains the only person in the history of the school to have twice received the Jerome Sayles Hess Prize (awarded to the top student of international law). He also remains the only U.S. national to have ever received the Jacques-Yvan Morin Prize (awarded to the best oralist at the French-language Charles Rousseau International Law Moot Court Competition). In addition, he was the author of the 2018 Problem of the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which was the first non-compromis problem in the history of the competition.