States have no permanent representative accredited to the International Court of Justice. They normally communicate with the Court via their minister for foreign affairs or their ambassador to the Netherlands. If a state is a party to an action brought before the ICJ, it is represented by an agent, often its ambassador or a senior civil servant (e.g. from the ministry of foreign affairs). The Court must be informed of the name of the appointed agent. Before the Court, he has the same function as an advocate, but is at the same time a formal representative of the state, similar to the head of a special diplomatic mission. The Principality of Liechtenstein has appointed as its agent the Düsseldorf attorney-at-law Dr. Alexander Goepfert, who has for some time now represented Liechtenstein's interests in the dispute concerning their assets located in the territory of former Czechoslovakia. Concurrently, he has been appointed Special Commissioner with the rank of Ambassador for the case brought before the ICJ.
Dr. Alexander Goepfert
Dr. Alexander Goepfert, born in 1956, is an attorney-at-law and partner of the law-firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Düsseldorf. He studied law and history of art at the universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg. He specialized in international law and private international law, in which he gained his doctorate at the University of Cologne.
Together with other partners of his, Dr. Goepfert is responsible for the international law practice of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He advises international companies in the field of investment protection under international law, and both private and public institutions with regard to the repatriation and restitution of works of art and other items of property. He is considered one of the leading experts in the field; in this capacity, he has represented Liechtenstein's interests over the past years in German courts and also at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
In a series of publications and lectures, he has dealt with various aspects of international economic law and art law.
