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BIOGRAPHY
OF PRESIDENT CLAUDE JORDA
Chosen as International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia's
President on November 16, 1999 and re-elected on March 2001
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A
French national, President Claude Jorda, born in Bône in Algeria
on 16 February 1938, has been a Judge at the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since January
1994. Appointed to replace the previous French Judge who resigned
for health reasons, Judge Jorda was re-elected for a second
four-year term on 20 May 1997 by the United Nations General
Assembly.
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In
October 1995, Judge Jorda was elected Presiding Judge of Trial
Chamber I and actively participated in the establishment and later
the implementation of the entire spectrum of procedures in force
at the ICTY. His choice as President of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia by his peers in November 1999
crowns his career in the judiciary, during which he assumed
high-level national responsibilities.
IN-DEPTH
EXPERIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL PROCEDURE
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Judge
Jorda took part in three of the four deferral proceedings at the
ICTY, sitting on the bench during those in the Tadic case in 1994
and the Karadzic and Mladic case in 1995, and presiding over the
proceedings linked to the Vukovar case in 1998. Judge Jorda also
presided over four of the five so-called "Article 61"
proceedings from the very first in the Nikolic case in October
1995 to those in the Martic and Vukovar cases in March 1996 and
April 1996 respectively, and finally to the most recent in the
Karadzic and Mladic case in July 1996.
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Furthermore,
Judge Jorda presided over the Trial Chamber which accepted the
first guilty plea entered by an accused and subsequently
pronounced the first sentence imposed by the ICTY in the Erdemovic
case in May and November 1996.
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Lastly,
Trial Chamber I is presently in the final phase of its sentencing
hearings in the Jelisic case and is also deliberating over its
Judgement in the Blaskic case, which it heard from 24 June 1997 to
30 July 1999.
A
MULTI-FACETTED CAREER
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The
international experience acquired by Judge Jorda whilst at The
Hague rounds off a career as a national judge punctuated by the
performance of important responsibilities encompassing all aspects
of the world of justice (educational, managerial and judicial).
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Having
graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Toulouse
(1960), the Barreau de Toulouse (1961) and the Ecole Nationale de
la Magistrature (1966), Judge Jorda joined the central
Administration of the Ministry of Justice (1966-1970) and, at the
same time, taught at the School of Law at the University of Paris
(1967-1970).
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Judge
Jorda held the posts of Secretary-General (1970-1976) and Deputy
Director (1978-1982) at the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature
prior to being appointed Director of Legal Services at the
Ministry of Justice from 1982 to 1985.
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He
was then appointed Chief Prosecutor at the Bordeaux Appeals Court
where he remained until 1992, when he was promoted to Chief
Prosecutor at the Paris Appeals Court, where he remained until his
appointment to the ICTY.
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A
member of the Société Française de Droit International,
President Jorda has also been on several judicial cooperation
missions to Chile, Guatemala, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Algeria,
Canada and most recently Madagascar.
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