Sarah Cleveland
Sarah Hull Cleveland (born September 4, 1965) is an American legal scholar and international judge serving as a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) since February 6, 2024.[1][2] She is the Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights at Columbia Law School, where she has held a faculty position since 2007 and co-directs the Human Rights Institute, specializing in international law, U.S. foreign relations law, human rights, and national security.[3][4] Cleveland's career includes clerkships with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and federal district judge Louis F. Oberdorfer, prior teaching roles at the University of Texas School of Law, Harvard Law School, and others, and advisory positions at the U.S. Department of State, such as Counselor on International Law from 2009 to 2011.[4] Elected to the ICJ by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council in November 2023 for a nine-year term, she previously served as Vice-Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee from 2015 to 2018, during which she contributed to General Comment No. 36 interpreting the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to encompass protections against arbitrary denials of access to abortion and other reproductive health services.[2][4] Her 2021 nomination by President Joe Biden to serve as Legal Adviser of the Department of State was not confirmed by the Senate amid opposition from pro-life advocates citing her advocacy for expansive international human rights interpretations on abortion.[5][6][7]