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Spotlights David Koller '99 University of Dayton Quarterly, Spring 2006 During David Koller’s Model United Nations days, speaking before the General Assembly was the week’s highlight. In August, he reached a new career achievement when the president of the International Criminal Court delivered a speech Koller had written to the UN General Assembly. Koller is special assistant to Philippe Kirsch of Canada, president of the International Criminal Court, established in 2002 by a treaty that 100 states have no ratified. The court has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. Events in Darfur, Sudan; Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Uganda are under investigation, and the first trial proceedings are expected to begin in 2006. “There’s a growing recognition that accountability and criminal trials play an important part in societies recovering from conflict,” said Koller. “There’s no typical day. You come in with a list of things to do and it’s completely rearranged by 10 a.m.,” said Koller, whose work involves diplomacy, strategic planning, and report and speech writing. Working in the “unique microcosm” of The Hague with other expatriates is the perfect job for Koller, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, majored in physics and philosophy at UD and wrote his honors thesis on human rights law. He studied government at Cornell University and earned a law degree from New York University. “Public international law and legal philosophy was my primary area. I’m interested in looking at how different institutions related, for example, the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.” Learning the working relationships of the court’s three separate organs has been challenging. There’s not a clear hierarchy. Everything has to be coordinated between the prosecutor, presidency and registrar,” he said. It’s easier to understand “if you grew up raised Irish Catholic,” said Koller, who has dual U.S. and Irish citizenship. Like the shamrock St. Patrick used to explain three persons in one God, “the ICC is three organs in one court.” —Deborah McCarty Smith

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