Christopher Greenwood, QC, is a professor of international law at the London School of Economics and a barrister at Essex Court Chambers, one of the "magic circle" top commercial sets. He has been put forward to replace Dame Rosalyn Higgins as the British judge on the International Court of Justice when the United Nations votes in November. Greenwood, 52, studied law at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was called to the Bar in 1978. He has appeared in many prominent cases in Europe’s highest courts — the Lockerbie bombing, Pinochet, Kosovo, Rwanda — but he is arguably best known for providing in November 2002 the legal opinion for the invasion of Iraq; Lord Goldsmith, QC, then Attorney-General, consulted him before giving his own opinion on the legality of the conflict. The opinion concluded that the invasion by allied powers was sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Greenwood was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2002 for services to international law.

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