Professor Joan Donoghue

Professor Joan Donoghue is a Visiting Fellow at Magdalene.

Professor Joan Donoghue was a Judge on the International Court of Justice from 2010 to 2024 and served as its President from 2021 to 2024. She joined the Court after a career at the U.S. State Department, where she was the senior career attorney from 2007 to 2010. She has served on investor-state arbitral tribunals and annulment committees and has decided challenges to arbitrators as appointing authority.

Professor Donoghue has taught international law and international investment law at several law schools and in the UN’s regional training programme . In spring term 2025, Joan was a Visiting Professor at the Law School at the University of California, Berkeley. During 2025-2026, she is the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor in Legal Science at Cambridge University. She is also the Honorary President of the American Society of International Law, a Vice-President of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, an Arbitrator Member of Twenty Essex Chambers and an Honorary Bencher at Middle Temple.

Research Interests

• Public international law
• The settlement of international disputes, especially disputes to which at least one party is a state.

Qualifications

• BA in Russian Studies with Honors
• BA in Biology with Honors, University of California, Santa Cruz (1978),
• JD, University of California, Berkeley (1981)