UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM
UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM SCHOOL OF LAW (SOL)

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James Luta Kateka is an alumnus of the University of Dar es Salaam, having graduated in the 1973 class. He is a lawyer and diplomat with a long-service period as ambassador to a number of foreign countries and subsequentlyas a judge oninternational jurisdictionalpanels for a number of international issues of arbitration.
James was born on 29th April 1945 in Nyakahanga village in Karagwe district, Kagera region,and attended Nyakahanga Native Authority Primary School (1952-1955), before moving on to Mugeza N. A. Middle School in Bukoba, from 1956 to 1959.From there, in 1960, he was selected to attend the-then only territorial Government Secondary in Tabora for Form I-VI (1960-1965). He was among a few pupils selectedfrom across schools in the Territory to undertake a full stretch ofsixyears of residence (for ordinary O-level and A-level classes at a-then only and best-facilitated government secondary school staffed by highly qualified expatriate teachers largely from the Commonwealth countries.
In 1966, he was among the best students who passed the Cambridge Higher School Certificate examination for entry into university degree programmes at the University of East Africa’s Dar es Salaam Campus, with theactual start-year was carried forward to 1967. He thus undertook his three-year undergraduate programme in Law at the Faculty of Law, from 1967 to 1970.His immediate posting for work was with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar es Salaam, where, for three years from 1970-73, his work schedules concerned both legal and diplomatic matters.He then had an opportunity to undertake a two-year postgraduate study programme at the University of London, Kings College,from 1973 to 1974, where he earned an LLM in International Law. It was from this point upon returning from postgraduate study in U.K. that his portfolio of work and responsibilities began to grow fast, beginning with appointment as First Secretary and later as Legal Counsellor at Tanzania’s UN Mission in New York (1976-1980). He then became Minister-Counsellor and Head of the Legal Section within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar es Salaam from 1980 to 1983. This was followed by appointment as Director (Legal Adviser) in the Department of Legal Affairs and International Organizations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1983 to 1989.
From 1989 to 1994, James was promoted to the position of Tanzanian Ambassador to Germany, with multi-accreditation to Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the Holy See (Vatican).In 1993, he was awarded a Papal Honour of the ‘Grand Cross with the Star of the Order of Pius IX’. For the next four years, from 1994 to 1998, he relocated to Russia as Tanzania Ambassador to the Russian Federation. From 1998 to 2005, he was appointed Ambassador to Sweden, with concurrent accreditation to the other Nordic States and the Baltic Republics. In Sweden, he served as the Dean of the Stockholm diplomatic corps, while he remained Dean of Tanzanian Ambassadors from 2004 to 2005.James Kateka, both as a lawyer and a diplomat, has also served as a member of various international conferences on the drafting of treaties under international law.These include the Vienna Convention on State Succession in International Treaties, the Statute of the International Seabed Authority, as well as that of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea  ....(see attachment below).......

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