Acknowledgements (2)

In: New Trends in International Law
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Chia-Jui Cheng
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It is absolutely impossible to publish the Festschrift without enthusiastic participation of so many old friends of Judge Owada in the International Court of Justice (icj) and our common academic friends from various nations. All of them are fully engaged in their daily work either in the courts or in their teaching and research. It was a challenge for them to contribute their creative essays within half year time. Their essays to the Festschrift are superb in quality, attesting how laborious task they engaged. Without any doubt, the Festschrift for Judge Owada may claim itself as one of the masterpieces of modern legal literature.

First of all, we owe a great debt to Under Deputy Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Council, Miguel de Serpa de Soares. He spent much time to prepare the Foreword, depicting the contribution of Judge Owada to the development of international law. Next, we deeply appreciate to Judge Joan E. Donoghue, President of the icj, who represented the icj to contribute the second Foreword. Lastly, we owed much debt to Jose Alvarez, Professor of International Law, New York University School of Law, for his immediate acceptance to write the Forewords for the Festschrift. Judge Owada had interacted closely with UN high ranking officials when he was Japanese Permanent Representative to the UN and the president of the icj. During that period of time, he had been the visiting professor of nyu School of Law.

During the tenure of Judge Owada in the icj from 2003 to 2017, he had established closely friendly ties with many judges. I should invite more of them to contribute to the Festschrift, however, due to page limit of the Festschrift, only six judges were invited in order to give other academic friends the opportunity to contribute their essays to the Festschrift.

For those judges of the icj, I have to express my profound gratitude to them, including Judge and President Monoghue (U.S.A.), Judge and President Rosalyn Higgins (the U.K.), Judge Ronny Abraham (France), Judge Geogio Caja (Italy), Judge and President Abdulquawi Yusuf (Somalia), Judge Sir Ken Keith (New Zealand), and Judge Peter Tomka (Slovakia). All of them warmly accepted my invitation to contribute their essays to the Festschrift in such a short time. Judge Higgins was the classmate of Judge Owada, at the Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1959.

Additionally, Judge and President Jin-Hyun Paik of International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (itlos) also accepted my invitation without hesitation to contribute an essay on various jurisdiction of itlos as well as latest development of the law of the sea. Judge Paik is one of the most highly qualified scholars of the law of the sea. I met him first time when he was the Dean, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University in 2010. We have to express our deep appreciation to his contribution.

My whole-hearted gratitude should extend to our academic contributors around the world. The Festschrift would not have materialized without their spontaneous and prompt response of my invitation. First, I have to express my sincere thanks to our Japanese old friends, Prof. Shinya Murase (Sophia University, Tokyo), Prof. Mariko Kawano (Waseda University, Tokyo), and Prof. Mahahiko Asada (Doshisha University and Emeritus of Kyoto University & Member of the ilc). All of them are enthusiastically provided full support to edit the Festschrift.

In Asia, I would like to express my deep appreciation to other invited scholars for their full supports of the Festschrift, including Prof. Simon Chesterman (Dean, Faculty of Law, Singapore University), Prof. B.H. Desai (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), and Prof. B.C. Nirmal (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi). Judge Owada was once granted an honorary ll.d. degree by Banaras Hindu University and delivered a lecture thereof. During Nirmal’s tenure of the Dean of Faculty of Law, Judge Owada was granted the ll.d. a.h. Banaras Hindu University is an internationally reputed temple of learning, situated in the old city of Varanasi (Benares). As Mark Twain said, “Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” Judge Owada was given an honorary ll.d from Varansi fully reflecting the interaction of different old civilization in Asia.

In Europe, we appreciate very much to our old academic friends for their contribution to the Festschrift respectively. First, we owe a great debt to Prof. Nico Schrijver, Prof. Mendes de Leon, and Prof. Tanja Masson-Zwaan from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Judge Owada and myself we have closely associated with Leiden University since 1965. In 2021, the Judge Owada chair was installed by Leiden University. For myself, I have associated with Leiden University Faculty of Law since 1965 when I was granted a Diploma of the Columbia-Leiden-Amsterdam Summer Program at Leiden University. From 1989 to 1990, we established a joined program with Leiden International Institute of Air and Space Law to promote international air and space law in East Asia, while I was the Dean of Soochow University Graduate School of Law. In 1993, we organized an international conference of air and space law in Tokyo which was the first ever held in Japan. So many Leiden professors participated thereto.

We have to express our great appreciation to Prof. Alain Pellet, Emeritus Professor, University of Paris X-Nanterre, Professor Emeritus Marcello Cohen (Graduate Institute of International Law and Development, Geneva), and Professor Emeritus Rüdiger Wolfrum (Former Judge and President of itlos). All of them are our old friends and indicated problems of international law. Prof. Pellet is the pioneer in the promotion of international law in Europe.

In North America, we owe much debts to Prof. Lori F. Damrosch (Columbia Law School), Prof. Jakhu (McGill University), Mr. Mishith Mishra (McGill University), Prof. Rachel Brewster (Duke Law School) and Prof. Frederik M. Abbott (Florida University) for their unreserved contribution to the Festschrift. Personally, I should pay my special appreciation to Professor Damrosch for her willingness to overcome the health problem and submitted her essay on time. My great debt should go to Professor Abbott, he was given only two months’ time to complete his creative essay and he did it.

By editing the present Festschrift, I would like to express my special thanks to Dr. Yen-Hsuch, Lai, Adjunct Lecturer of International Economic Law and the former Secretary of the Soochow University School of Law for her invaluable assistance in the process of editing.

Finally, I owe, and gratefully acknowledge, a special debt to Ms. Ingeborg van der Laan, publisher of Brill/Nijhoff for her kind assistance to arrange the publication of the Festschrift on time. Without her encouragement, this Festschrift would have been unable to appear.

Chia-Jui Cheng

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New Trends in International Law

Festschrift in Honour of Judge Hisashi Owada

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