Marcelo Kohen

Kohen represented the Institute at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates 2019 in Merida, Mexico. In this context, he argued that "the law is the weapon of the weak in their relationship with the powerful" and stressed that "force does not give rights."

Kohen has been twice elected Secretary General of the Institut de Droit International (2015 and 2021). Kohen is also the founder of the Latin American Society of International Law and was appointed as its first Director General. Kohen has also served as Rapporteur for the International Law Association, the Council of Europe, as well as the Institut.

Marcelo Kohen was elected Secretary General of the Institute of International Law in 2015, at the 77th session held in Tallinn (Estonia). He was re-elected as Secretary General in 2021.

Kohen has been Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva since 2002, and a faculty member since 1995. He has twice given courses at The Hague Academy of International Law. He began his academic career in 1986, when, soon after graduating, he became a faculty member at the National University of Rosario.

He is the author of several publications in English, French, and Spanish. His book "Possession contestée et souveraineté territoriale" (Presses universitaires de France, 1997) was awarded the Paul Guggenheim Prize in 1997.

Kohen obtained his law degree from the National University of Rosario in 1983. He obtained the academy diploma from The Hague Academy of International Law in 1990. He obtained his PhD in International Law (summa cum laude) from the University of Geneva (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) in 1995, under the supervision of the Egyptian jurist and international judge Georges Abi-Saab.

He has represented different states on at least twelve occasions before the ICJ, including Argentina in the Uruguay River pulp mill dispute and the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965; Colombia in the Case concerning The Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia); Costa Rica in the Dispute regarding Navigational and Related Rights (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua); and Serbia in the Advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence. He has also represented states at other international tribunals, including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, where he represented Argentina in the “ARA Libertad” Case (Argentina v. Ghana). He has been an arbitrator designated by states from four continents and very different traditions and regimes in at least 14 international cases, including at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and UNCITRAL.

Marcelo Gustavo Kohen (born August 11, 1957) is an Argentine international lawyer and academic specialised in the areas of international legal theory, territorial and border disputes, international adjudication, and peaceful settlement of international disputes. He is Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Kohen is the Secretary-General of the Institut de Droit International, the oldest organisation of international lawyers and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1904). He was the first non-European appointed as Secretary-General since the Institut's foundation in 1870.