Dr. Kamal Hossain is former Vice-Chairman of the Executive Council of the International Law Association. Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, he joined the legal profession in 1959, after obtaining an Honours degree in Jurisprudence, BCL and doctorate in International Law, from the University of Oxford.

Dr. Hossain taught International Law and Constitutional Law in the Department of International Relations and the Faculty of Law, University of Dhaka, in the 1960s. He was involved in the political movements, which culminated in the liberation struggle and the emergence of sovereign Bangladesh.

He was Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh (1972-72); Member of Parliament (1972-75); Minister of Law, Government of Bangladesh (1972-75); Minister of Foreign Affairs (1972-75); Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford (1975) and Visiting Professor, Free University of Amsterdam (1997).  

He has been a United Nations (UN) consultant in oil and gas matters in PRC, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago and Uzbekistan. Chairman, (Panel D-2) and Member, United Nations Compensation Commission, Geneva (1999-2005).  He was Chairperson, Commonwealth Human Rights Advisory Commission (1993-1998); Chairman, Advisory Council (till 2005) and Member, Advisory Council, Transparency International. Dr. Hossain was ad hoc Judge for Malaysia, in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Hamburg (2003); a member of the Arbitral Tribunal under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in the Land Reclamation case involving Malaysia and Singapore, (2004-2005); and in the Maritime Delimitation case involving Guyana and Surinam (2005-2007).

He has served as Chairman and Member in a number of International Arbitral Tribunals, such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). He is currently a member of several ICSID and other international arbitral tribunals.