The Rebellious Scholar: In Honour of Professor Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni

• Author: Shadi A. Alshdaifat
• Pages: 281-301

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2018 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

thE rEBEllious sCholar

in honour of professor mahmoud cherif

Bassiouni

Shadi A. Alshdaifat

College of Law, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

salshdaifat@sharjah.ac.ae

“I have a sense of orderliness about things. Do the investigation rst,

see what the evidence is, and then indict. You don’t start by indicting

without getting the evidence,”1

—Professor Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, Foreign Policy, 2012.

I. INTRODUCTION

Allow me to begin with one of my favourite quotes of all time by

Bassiouni, and regarding all lessons about the great power one must

exert to make change “I can place my little grain of sand and add to

that very thin veneer of civilization . . . I’m a very rm believer in the

incremental approach; things change because individuals move their little

grain of sand”.

It is a great pleasure to write an essay on ‘Bassiouni’, and I hope that

the readers will nd my words salutary in familiarizing them with the

life and accomplishments of the late rebellious scholar, MCB. Bassiouni

stands in my mind as the all-time favorite of his students, as well as

one of the greatest contemporary legal minds. Humbly, I met Professor

Bassiouni in 2010 when I was an SJD candidate in California. I met him

once, and asked him guide me and introduce me to certain articles of

1. Foreign Policy Interview with MCB (2012), http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/18/

cherif-bassiouni-the-fp-interview/.

V Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 281-302 (April 2018)

282

Alshdaifat

his,2 at that time; I was working on my dissertation “International Law

and the Use of Force against Terrorism”. 3

Going forward, the collection of data in this essay was taken from

Bassiouni’s own warm words and my personal experience; it is one of

my many bitter moments, yet great moments “in a way” to celebrate

in my own words the legacy of MCB. While I was preparing this essay,

I polled many of Bassiouni’s previous students for comments and

opinions, I must add my own opinion that he was truly a scholar and

mentor extraordinaire. Having said so, I am delighted, both personally

and on a professional level, to add my words to those of the many others

to celebrate Bassiouni’s life, accomplishments and career.

I. PERSONAL AND EDUCATIONAL LIFE

Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni (pronounced bass-ee-YOU-nee) was born

in Cairo on December 9, 1937. His father was an Egyptian diplomat,

and his grandfather—a president of the Egyptian senate—fought during

Egypt’s 1919 revolt against British occupation.4 Moreover, Bassiouni

married three times, rst, to Rosanna Cesari in 1962, who died while

they were in the process of separating. As well as, Nina Delmissier,

a marriage that ended because of her death in 2006. In addition to

Elaine Klemen-Bassiouni, who remained Bassiouni’s single w ife, with a

stepdaughter, Lisa Capitanini; and two grandchildren.

A so-spoken polyglot who was conversational in a half-dozen

2. Cherif Bassiouni, Assessing “Terrorism” into the New Millennium, 12 DP

B. L.J. 1 (1999-2000). Cherif Bassiouni,, Evolving Approaches to Jihad: From

Self-Defense to Revolutionary and Regime-Change Political Violence, 8 C. J.

I’ L. 142 (2007). Cherif Bassiouni, e Future of International Criminal Jus-

tice, 11 P J. I’ L. R. 309 (1999).

3. S A, I L   U  F 

T (2017).

4. As one may know that the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 eectively

ended Ottoman rule over Egypt, which had lasted since 1517. Bassiouni men-

tioned the revolt in his e Nationalization of the Suez Canal and the Illicit Act

in International Law, 14 DP L. R. 258 (1965). In this regard, see Charles

George Gordon, T J  M-G. G. G. G, C.B., (Amazon

Digital Publishing 2015) (1885).