Jamaican judge on International Court of Justice will not seek re-election

Globally respected Jamaican jurist, Patrick Robinson, will not seek re-election to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) when his current term expires in February 2024. 

Jamaica is also not likely to field a candidate to contest the post when it becomes vacant, foreign ministry sources say. 

Robinson told the CARICOM Secretariat and the Jamaican government of his intention, according to a leaked document prepared by the Guyana-based regional body.

CARICOM member states have been informed of the development and asked to consider the nomination of a suitably qualified candidate for the elections to the ICJ due in November 2023, the confidential document said.

The matter has been circulated to CARICOM foreign ministers who are scheduled to meet on May 18 and 19.

The ICJ is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council.

Robinson, 78, was elected to the UN court in February 2015.

Locally, he served in numerous public roles including briefly as legal adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Senior Assistant Attorney-General, Director of the Division of International Law, and Deputy Solicitor-General.

He joined the UN in 1972 and for the next 26 years served as Jamaica's representative to the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the United Nations General Assembly.

He played a leadership role on several issues including the definition of aggression and the draft statute for an international criminal court.

From 1981 to 1998, he led Jamaica's delegations for the negotiation of treaties on several subjects, including extradition, mutual legal assistance, maritime delimitation and investment promotion and protection.

He's widely respected for his role as a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and served as the Tribunal's President from 2008 to 2011.

He's the father of Julian Robinson, a serving Opposition member of parliament; Rhodes scholar Tracy Robinson, a deputy dean of the law faculty at the University of the West Indies, Mona and Graham Robinson, the senior vice president and president of Stanley Black & Decker's industrial division, who was last year named on Forbes' inaugural CEO Next list of 50 persons on the "cusp of running America's most influential and respected companies". 

- Jovan Johnson  

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