Forbidden Red Wine By Hyogo Kurouchi (= Shinya Murase), 2021  Plot Summary (A romantic mystery with many twists and turns) Part I  Chapter 1: The Birth of a Venus Baden-Baden, south Germany, located at the edge of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), in early summer of 2008. This town was established by the Emperor Caracalla in…… Continue reading Forbidden Red Wine, Plot Summary

Samurai versus Letter to my son, Ryuichi, 31 July 2021               Our ancestor, who was a low rank samurai, fought in the civil war of Komaki-Nagakute in 1584. His landlord lost in the battle. Our ancestor was alive. As a samurai, he could have committed hara-kiri when faced with defeat or humiliation. Our ancestor chose instead to abandon his…… Continue reading Samurai versus Farmer

Eulogy for Professor James Crawford: International Law Commission (ILC), 22 July 2021 (A/CN.4/ SR 3547)               Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the floor to speak in memory of Judge James Crawford.                Like everybody else, I learned, with deep sorrow, of the untimely death of Judge James Crawford on 31 May 2021. It was some…… Continue reading Obituaries at ILC: Eulogy for Professor James Crawford

Murase Comments on General Principles of Law 16 July 2021 (A/CN.4?SR 3542)            I would like to thank the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Vasqez Bermudez,  for the excellent second report on General Principles of Law (GPL, for short). I also thank the Secretariat for the useful memorandum. I have tried to make my intervention this morning to be brief. …… Continue reading Murase Comments on General Principles of Law (GPL) 16 July 2021

The following is what I have recently found about my ancestral journey by the results of a DNA test administered by the Genographic Project https://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/, a joint project by the National Geographic Society and IBM, whose goal is to analyze human DNA samples and understand the routes which human populations took. After submitting my DNA…… Continue reading My Ancestral Traces

Murase Comments on General Principles of Law (GPL) at ILC (2019-) Note: I made comments on the topic of customary international law six times over the years at ILC, which are reproduced below. These are the original manuscripts. They are reproduced in the ILC summary records, which are however shortened versions of the original statements.…… Continue reading Murase Comments on General Principles of Law at ILC (2019-)

Murase Comments on Jus Cogens at ILC (2016-2019) Note: I made comments on the topic of jus cogens four times over the years at ILC, which are reproduced below. These are the original manuscripts. They are reproduced in the ILC summary records, which are however shortened versions of the original statements. I often had to…… Continue reading Murase Comments on Jus Cogens at ILC (2016-2019)

Murase Comments on Customary International Law at ILC Note: I made comments on the topic of customary international law six times over the years at ILC, which are reproduced below. These are the original manuscripts. They are reproduced in the ILC summary records, which are however shortened versions of the original statements. I often had…… Continue reading Murase Comments on Customary International Law at ILC (2012-2018)

Obituaries at ILC (Professor Alexander Yankov) Shinya Murase We were all deeply saddened to learn of the death of Professor Alexander Yankov on 17 October 2019. Professor Yankov (22 June 1924 – 2019) was a prominent jurist, a successful diplomat and a brilliant scholar. He was a former member of the UN International Law Commission…… Continue reading Obituaries at ILC (Professor Alexander Yankov)

I retired from Sophia University in Tokyo in March 2014 at the mandatory age of 70. Immediately afterwards, I started teaching in Beijing, and I did not have time to worry about my post retirement then. But this time, it is so different. I gave my farewell lecture at Peking University in late September this…… Continue reading Retirement Syndrome