M. Cherif Bassiouni is emeritus professor of law at DePaul University, where he taught since 1964, and president emeritus of the International Human Rights Law Institute, which he helped found in 1990. He was one of the founders in 1972 of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa, Italy, and served as its president since 1988. He is the honorary president of the International Association of Penal Law after having served three terms as president from 1989 to 2004. He was a guest scholar at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. in 1972, visiting professor of law, New York University Law School in 1971, Fulbright-Hays Professor of International Criminal Law, The University of Freiburg, Germany in 1970, non-resident professor of criminal law at the University of Cairo from 1996 to 2006, and is a frequent lecturer at universities in the United States and abroad. His legal education was in Egypt, France, Switzerland and the United States where he received the following degrees: LLB University of Cairo; JD Indiana University; LLM John Marshall Law School; SJD George Washington University. In addition, he received several honorary degrees from: Doctor of Law honoris causa University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium (2011); Case Western Reserve University, USA (LLD) (2010); Catholic Theological Union, USA (Doctor of Humane Letters) (2009); National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland (LLD) (2001); Niagara University, USA (LLD) (1997); Docteur dEtat en Droit honoris causa, University of Pau, France (1986); Dottore in Giurisprudenza honoris causa, University of Torino, Italy (1981).
William A. Schabas is professor of international law at Middlesex University in London. He is also professor of international human law and human rights at Leiden University, emeritus professor of human rights law at the National University of Ireland Galway and honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, invited visiting scholar at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Politiques), honorary professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, visiting fellow of Kellogg College of the University of Oxford, and professeur associé at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Prof. Schabas is a 'door tenant' at the chambers of 9 Bedford Row, in London. He holds BA and MA degrees in history from the University of Toronto and LLB, LLM and LLD degrees from the University of Montreal, as well as honorary doctorates in law from several universities. He is the author of more than twenty books dealing in whole or in part with international human rights law and has also published more than 300 articles in academic journals, principally in the field of international human rights law and international criminal law. He is editor-in-chief of “Criminal Law Forum”, the quarterly “journal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law”. He is President of the Irish Branch of the International Law Association and chair of the International Institute for Criminal Investigation. Professor Schabas has worked as a consultant on capital punishment for the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and drafted the 2010 report of the Secretary-General on the status of the death penalty (UN Doc. E/2010/10). Professor Schabas was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2007. He has been awarded the Vespasian V. Pella Medal for International Criminal Justice of the Association internationale de droit pénal, and the Gold Medal in the Social Sciences of the Royal Irish Academy.
