Piotr Józef Hofmański was born on March 6, 1956. He is a Polish law expert who worked as the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2021 to 2024. He also served as a judge at the ICC from 2015 to 2024. Before this time, Hofmański worked as a legal expert and adviser at the Council of Europe.
Early life and education
Piotr Hofmański was born on March 6, 1956, in Poznań, Polish People's Republic. He earned his master's degree in law from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in 1978. He received his doctor of laws degree from the same university in 1981. He earned the right to teach at a higher level at the University of Silesia in Katowice in 1990.
Council of Europe
From 2001 to 2002, he worked as an expert at the Council of Europe in a group that studied how countries work together on criminal issues. From 2004 to 2006, he was part of a team that focused on Transnational Justice.
Judge
He started his career as a judge in the higher court in Białystok in 1994. From 1996 to 2015, he worked as a judge in the criminal cases section of Poland’s Supreme Court. In 1999, he served as the court’s official representative.
In December 2014, he was chosen as a judge for the International Criminal Court for the term 2015–2024. He was the first person from Poland to hold this position. He was officially sworn in on 10 March 2015 with five other judges. In March 2021, he was elected President of the International Criminal Court for the term 2021–2024. During this time, judges Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza and Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua served as his Vice-presidents.
In September 2023, Russia issued an arrest warrant for Hofmański on unclear charges, reportedly as a response to the ICC issuing a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. On 12 December 2025, a Moscow court sentenced him to prison without him being present.
On December 3, 2024, Hofmański was named a judge in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and assigned to the Constitutional Court within that tribunal.
Publications
Hofmański wrote alone or with others more than 300 articles or books about different areas of criminal law and procedures, working with other countries on criminal issues, and protecting people's rights. Many of these writings were created and shared in German and/or English.