Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Wald, Patricia Mcgowan

In July 1999, UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Judge Patricia M. Wald to serve on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Wald, who had served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for 20 years and as vice president of the American Law Institute for ten years, had the necessary background and experience to tackle the difficult task of determining the guilt or innocence of those accused of crimes committed during the war between Serbians and Croatians in the early 1990s.

Born Patricia McGowan on September 16, 1928, and raised in the manufacturing town of Torrington, Connecticut, Wald spent her summers working in the brass mills. Through this experience, she became involved in her first cause—the protection of working class people. Later, after graduating first in her class...