Professor Francisco Orrego Vicuña passed away on 2 October 2018
The Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law was saddened to hear about the death of Professor Orrego Vicuña. The Managing Director and all staff at the Foundation wish to convey their sincere condolences to the professor’s family.
Professor Orrego Vicuña was closely associated with the Foundation playing an instrumental role in drafting recommendations for its establishment for the Max Planck Society, our only shareholder and being chairperson of its Scientific and Development Policy Advisory Committee since 2015.
During his extensive legal career, he was an esteemed Chilean lawyer and arbitrator at different international courts of arbitration. He was admitted to legal practice in 1965 and received his PhD in 1986 from the London School of Economics and Social Sciences. He started his international career as senior legal advisor to the Organization of American States (1965-1969 and 1972-1974). Between 1983-1985, he was Ambassador of Chile to the United Kingdom. From 1989-2000, he was President of the Chilean Council on Foreign Relations and a judge at the World Bank Administrative Tribunal from 1992-2009 (President 2001-2004). He was appointed to be an ad hoc judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea from 2000-2009. Professor Orrego Vicuña was a member of the Panel of Arbitrators and Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) from 1995-2010 and was President of the Panel at the UN Compensation Commission from 1998-2001. In 2007, he was awarded the Medal of Merit by the University of Heidelberg. He was an arbitrator at the International Chamber of Commerce, the London Court of International Arbitration, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the World Trade Organization as well as at 20 Essex Street Chambers in London and Singapore, and he was also a judge at the Administrative Tribunal of the International Monetary Fund.
Professor Orrego Vicuña’s advice, sharp intellect and sense of humour as well as his friendship will be sorely missed by all his associates at the Foundation.