John De Saram

John Henricus de Saram (born 27 June 1929) is a Sri Lankan lawyer and diplomat, who served as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York. He was a former director of the Office of the Legal Counsel, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs and was a former member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

Early life and education Born in Colombo to a family of lawyers, of Dutch and Malay ancestry, De Saram was educated at the Royal College, Colombo, from where he entered the newly established Law Faculty of the University of Ceylon in 1949 and graduated with an LLB shortly he took oaths as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon. Later he attended Yale Law School as a Smith-mundt Scholar and was admitted as a barrister in the Inner Temple.

Legal and diplomatic career He started his career as an assistant lecturer in the law faculty, University of Ceylon in 1952. Thereafter he served as private secretary to the Chief Justice of Ceylon, before moving to the Unofficial bar to engaged in a private practice as a civil and criminal lawyer.

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