In that year, Crawford was also elected to membership of the United Nations International Law Commission ("ILC").

He is professor of public international law at the Humboldt University of Berlin and is a member of the UN's International Law Commission.

International Law Commission, Historical Survey of the Question of International Criminal Jurisdiction (New York, 1949) (UN Document: A/CN.4/7/Rev.1)

He has served as Judge ad hoc on the International Court of Justice and as a Special Rapporteur for both the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission.

For him, between 1870 and 1929, the "Holy See was not an international person," although, "it had by custom and tacit consent of most states acquired a quasi-international position" The United Nations International Law Commission noted, nonetheless, that:

At the Fourth United Nations General Assembly Session in October-December 1949, the International Law Commission included the topic "Nationality, including statelessness" in its list of topics of international law provisionally selected for codification.

J. Benton Heath, "Disasters, Relief, and Neglect: The Duty to Accept Humanitarian Assistance and the Work of the International Law Commission" New York University Journal of International Law & Politics, vol.