The allegations against Julia Sebutinde raise questions about professionalism and judgment, but the credibility of the World Court is expected to remain intact

Sebutinde, who currently holds what is arguably the world’s most prestigious judicial position, has recently been accused of directly lifting several sentences almost word for word in her dissenting opinion written on 19 July.

At the time, a 15-judge panel found that Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful” and that its “near-complete separation” of people in the occupied West Bank breached international laws concerning “racial segregation” and “apartheid”.

Sebutinde’s dissenting opinion contained at least three sentences very closely resembling statements from a December 2021 article by Douglas Feith, a former US official.

An additional four sentences were taken from the pro-Israeli advocacy website Jewish Virtual Library. The allegations were first uncovered by researcher Zachary Foster.