Bogdan Lucian Aurescu (born 9 September 1973) is a Romanian judge of the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...
. Prior to his swearing-in on 6 February 2024, Aurescu was a diplomat, law professor and politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania between 4 November 2019 and 15 June 2023 under prime ministers:
Ludovic Orban,
Florin Cîțu and
Nicolae Ciucă
Nicolae Ionel Ciucă (; born 22 September 1967) is a Romanian politician and retired general of the Romanian Land Forces. Ideologically a conservative, he served as Prime Minister of Romania between 25 November 2021 and 12 June 2023 after receiv ...
. He also held that position between 24 November 2014 and 17 November 2015 under prime minister
Victor Ponta.
He also held the position of Foreign Policy Advisor to the
President of Romania
The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...
from May 2016 to November 2019 and Secretary of State in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Secretary of State for Strategic Affairs (2009–2010, 2012–2014), Secretary of State for European Affairs (2004–2005, 2010–2012) and Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2012).
Between 2004 and 2009, Aurescu was his country's chief counsel in the
Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea case, a boundary dispute with
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
that Romania brought before the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...
.
Between 2010 and 2011, he was the head of the Romanian delegation for the negotiations on the Romanian-American Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement, and of the Joint Declaration on the Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century between Romania and USA.
In November 2016, he was elected by the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...
as a member of the UN International Law Commission for a five years mandate (2017–2021).

On 9 November 2023, at the
2023 International Court of Justice judges election, Aurescu was elected as the
Eastern European
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and ...
representative at the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...
(ICJ). He received the votes of 117
UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 79th session, its powers, ...
members, beating
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
's representative
Kirill Gevorgian, who received the votes of 77. This marked the first time that Russia would not be represented at the Court.
He is also a Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, having started his teaching activity in 1998.
Controversies
Adrian Năstase promoted Bogdan Aurescu to the post of Undersecretary of State and later, to the Secretary of State. Aurescu was Năstase's assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest for the Public International Law discipline and they wrote together several legal treaties. In 2004, Aurescu ran for a seat in the
Romanian Parliament on behalf of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Form ...
(PSD) in
Dâmbovița County
Dâmbovița County (; also spelt Dîmbovița) is a county () of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Târgoviște, the most important economic, political, administrative and cultural center of the county. It is a traditional administra ...
, but he did not win.
In November 2014, Adrian Năstase attended an event called by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Minister Bogdan Aurescu. Recently released from prison, where he was imprisoned being sentenced twice for the corruption offenses, Năstase was next to Aurescu, who had just been appointed Foreign Minister, at a book launch event. In April 2015, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Adrian Năstase, who was twice sentenced for prison, returned to the Government, more precisely to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the invitation of the acting minister Bogdan Aurescu to the meeting of an advisory council. The ministry led by Aurescu then argued that the invitation was made "because of his rich institutional and professional expertise".
In June 2015, Prime Minister
Victor Ponta was charged by the
National Anticorruption Directorate
The National Anticorruption Directorate (), formerly National Anticorruption Prosecution Office (), is the Romanian agency tasked with preventing, investigating and prosecuting Political corruption, corruption-related offenses (such as bribery, g ...
for several corruption offenses. At that time, Bogdan Aurescu was a member of the Ponta Government and remained in office until November 2015, when Victor Ponta resigned.
References
External links
Bogdan Lucian Aurescuat the Ministry of Foreign Affairs site
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aurescu, Bogdan
1973 births
Living people
People from Bucharest
International Court of Justice judges
Ministers of foreign affairs of Romania
Academic staff of the University of Bucharest