Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Thursday, 16 May 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
An MOU was signed on 15 May 2013 between the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) and the Moragoda International Law Trust to establish the Moragoda Endowment Professorship in International Law at the KDU.
This is a project under which the Moragoda International Law Trust, established to advance, promote and provide further education in the field of international law, will arrange annual academic programmes on selected topics of public international law, to be conducted by internationally renowned experts. Each programme will cover from seven to ten days and is intended primarily for postgraduate law students, who have already completed their first degree.
The first series of such lectures will be part of an intensive course on the International Law of the Sea. This was a topic that was discussed during the planning of the Professorship, as being of particular relevance to Sri Lanka as an island nation bordering the Bay of Bengal.
Representing the KDU on this occasion was Vice Chancellor Major General Milinda Peiris, and the Moragoda International Law Trust was represented by Settlor of the Trust, Dr. Moragodage Christopher Walter Pinto, along with members of the Advisory Committee of the Trust Milinda Moragoda, Jennifer Moragoda, Menaka Balendra and the Directors of Jacey Trust Services, Julius & Creasy, Senior Partner J.M. Swaminathan and Anandhiy Gunawardhana.
This professorship is funded through an endowment by Dr. Moragodage Christopher Walter Pinto, a leading international lawyer and retired diplomat. He presently serves as the President of the tribunal arbitrating a maritime dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Prior to that, he chaired the international tribunal, which considered a maritime dispute between Singapore and Malaysia.
From 1982-2011, he served as the Secretary-General of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal set up to settle certain disputes between the two countries. Earlier he served as the first Legal Advisor to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence and External Affairs from 1967-76 and was Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany and Austria from 1976-80. Dr. Moragodage Christopher Walter Pinto was Chairman of the Sri Lankan delegation to the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea Convention and Chairman of the Conference’s Negotiating Group on the Seabed beyond national jurisdiction.
He also chaired the prestigious United Nations International Law Commission. He is a graduate of Peradeniya University and the University of Cambridge and in 2008 received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Colombo.
