Robert Yewdall Jennings
British judge (1913–2004)
Sir Robert Yewdall Jennings (19 October 1913 – 4 August 2004) was Whewell Professor of International Law at Cambridge University from 1955 to 1982 and a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 1982. He served as President of the ICJ between 1991 and 1994 before he resigned from the Court on 10 July 1995.
Birth and education
Jennings was born in Yorkshire, England, in the village of Idle where his father worked at a small manufacturing firm and his mother was a mill weaver.
Educated at the local village school in Idle, and later at Belle Vue Grammar School in Bradford, he went on to study history at Downing College, Cambridge. After he gained an upper first class degree, the award of a Squire Law scholarship and some assistance from his local authority provided the financial support that enabled him to proceed to study Law. Again, Jennings excelled, gaining first class honours in both parts of the Cambridge Law Tripos and in the postgraduate LLB degree, and being awarded the Whewell and Cassell scholarships. He later received his LL.B. from the same institution and then won the Joseph Hodges Choate Memorial Fellowship to Harvard University.
Career
After Harvard, Jennings worked at an assistant lectureship at the London School of Economics. From 1939 on, he was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and was awarded the Hudson Medal of the American Society of International Law. The University of Leicester named a chair after him; Malcolm Shaw held the Chair until 2011.
“Robert Yewdall Jennings” enters the record as british judge (1913–2004). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robert, Yewdall and Jennings can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Robert Yewdall Jennings” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Robert, Yewdall and Jennings provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q777588. VIAF identifies the subject as 44606724. The Library of Congress control number is n81098166. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2004, 1955 and 1982.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Yewdall Jennings”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Robert Yewdall Jennings primary sources, Robert Yewdall Jennings archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Yewdall Jennings”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Robert Yewdall Jennings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.