James Stewart

James Stewart is an international lawyer specializing in rule of law, international criminal justice, humanitarian law and human rights. For more than twenty-five years, his work has combined litigation, research, teaching and policy leadership.

He served as Appeals Counsel with the Prosecution at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

His research is translated into French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic and cited by multiple international tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the International Criminal Court. He has also published opinion pieces in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Stewart holds degrees from Victoria University of Wellington in Philosophy and in Law and the Université de Genève in international law, where he studied in French as a Swiss Government Excellence Scholar. He also holds a doctorate in law from Columbia Law School, where he served as an Associate-in-Law. He has taught at Columbia, NYU, the Nuremberg Academy and Melbourne University.

His work has received numerous international distinctions, including the Antonio Cassese Prize in International Criminal Law, the La Pira Prize, the Hessel Yntema Prize from the American Society of Comparative Law, and fellowships from the Open Society Foundations and NYU School of Law.

In 2019, he delivered four public lectures in French at the Collège de France and was invited to apply for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He is presently Chair of the Board of Directors for the Allard Prize for International Integrity.

A sixth-generation New Zealander who has lived on four continents, his intellectual formation reflects early exposure to diverse legal and political contexts. He currently teaches law at the University of British Columbia.