Hsu Mo (; October 22, 1893 in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

, province of

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

– June 28, 1956 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

) was a Chinese

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

. He worked from 1931 to 1941 as deputy foreign minister of his country, as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, and from 1946 until his death as a judge at the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

Life

Hsu Mo was born in 1893 in

, and studied law at

Peiyang University National Peiyang University (北洋大学堂), originally Imperial Tientsin University, was established in Tianjin in October 1895 by Sheng Xuanhuai, the official of the Tianjin Customs, with the approval of the Guangxu Emperor of Qing dynasty. I ...

and at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. He received his doctorate in Australia at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. In the 1920s, he worked first as a professor of

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

and

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

at Nankai University and later as a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

in various district courts. In 1928, he moved to the

Chinese Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China () is the first-ranked executive department of the State Council of the Chinese government, responsible for the foreign relations of the People's Republic of China. It is led ...

, where he worked as a consultant and later as Director of the European-American and Asian Department. Three years later, he became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. After ten years in this position, he became Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Australia in 1941 and from 1944 to 1946 he was ambassador of his homeland in Turkey. After the end of World War II, in April 1945, he participated on the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Committee of Jurists in Washington DC, tasked with preparing draft statutes for the then contemplated International Court of Justice. He also served as the

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

of the Committee on Chapter VI of the

United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...

on the Regulations for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes. A year later he was elected a judge of the International Court of Justice, where he worked until his death. His successor was his compatriot

Wellington Koo Koo Vi Kyuin (; January 29, 1888 – November 14, 1985), better known as V. K. Wellington Koo, was a statesman of the Republic of China. He was one of Republic of China's representatives at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Wellington Koo ...

. Hsu Mo became a member of the

Institut de Droit International The Institute of International Law (French: Institut de Droit International) is an organization devoted to the study and development of international law, whose membership comprises the world's leading public international lawyers. The organizati ...

in 1948. He died in 1956, in The Hague.

References

* Raymond M. Lorantas: ''Hsu Mo.'' In: Warren F. Kuehl (Hrsg.): ''Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists.'' Greenwood Press, Westport 1983, , S. 359/360 * ''Hsu Mo.'' In: Arthur Eyffinger, Arthur Witteveen,

Mohammed Bedjaoui Mohammed Bedjaoui ( ar, محمد بجاوي) (born September 21, 1929 in Sidi Bel-Abbes) is an Algerian diplomat and jurist. He served as Algeria's ambassador to France and the United Nations among other places. He also served as a judge on the I ...

: ''La Cour internationale de Justice 1946–1996.'' Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Den Haag und London 1999, , S. 292 *'
Death of His Excellency Judge Hsu Mo, Member of the International Court of Justice
' News Release 56/12 of the International Court of Justice of 28 June 1956 on the death of Hsu Mo (available online through the website of the ICJ as

PDF File Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

, approximately 70KB) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hsu, Mo 1893 births 1956 deaths Academic staff of Nankai University Diplomats of the Republic of China International Court of Justice judges Members of the Institut de Droit International Ambassadors of China to Australia Politicians from Suzhou Republic of China politicians from Jiangsu Republic of China historians Writers from Suzhou 20th-century Chinese historians Historians from Jiangsu Chinese judges of United Nations courts and tribunals 20th-century Chinese lawyers 20th-century Chinese judges