Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Affiliated Fellow of the Centre and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University, receives the Weeramantry International Justice Award

The Centre is delighted to announce that Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Affiliated Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law has received the prestigious new Weeramantry International Justice Award for law and sustainable development.

The Weeramantry International Justice Award is granted to distinguished senior-level jurists whose lifeworks, intellect and character offer the highest possible credit to the memory of his Excellency the late Judge Christopher Gregory Weeramantry (1926 –2017). A Judge (1991-2000) and Vice-President (1997-2000) of the International Court of Justice, Justice CG Weeramantry received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education (2006) and Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award (2007). Laureates are selected from a global roster of nominees in honour of his Excellency’s international legacy, including his commitment to international law, peace and sustainable development, also his global humanism and leadership in the law. 

Prof Cordonier Segger received the award from the Weeramantry family, during the online Global Symposium on Human Rights, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Law on 15 May 2020. The symposium was hosted by McGill University Faculty of Law Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP), the University of Montreal Faculty of Law, the Balsillie School of International Affairs Fulbright Chair in Global Governance, the University of Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Governance (CEENRG), the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and other partners, and attracted over 1,404 registrants from 101 countries.

Prof Cordonier Segger shares this award with two other laureates globally: the Hon Judge Marcel Szabo of the Constitutional Court of Hungary, former Ombudsman for Future Generations, and the advocate Neshan Gunasekera of the International Organization on Migration, from Sri Lanka.

“It is a great honour to share this international award with his Honour Judge Szabo and Advocate Gunasekera” said Prof Cordonier Segger. “The distinction carries a commitment to mentorship, insight and inspiration, and we shall endeavour to live up to it.”  

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, declares: “Since being awarded the Leverhulme, Professor Cordonier Segger has been actively engaging, lecturing and inspiring our researchers, students and colleagues with the Bennett Institute, the Lauterpacht Centre and other partners across the University of Cambridge. In these difficult times, she has also created new educational series on sustainability for secondary and primary students left stranded by the lockdown. It is a pleasure to learn of this distinction and we congratulate her for being named a laureate of the Weeramantry International Justice Award.”

Prof Cordonier Segger is a Fellow in Law and Director of Studies in Law for the LLM and MCL at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge; Full Professor at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Canada; Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change CoP26 Climate Law & Governance Initiative; Senior Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and an Affiliated Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. She was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor in January 2020, in collaboration with the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and other institutions, for the next two years. She is one of the first women professors to receive this distinction in the University of Cambridge, rare for law and the social sciences.