Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for International Law

Posted on by Chris Bonnez

On 5 May 2022 at 9am GMT, join us on Facebook and YouTube for a discussion with leading international law experts on the ongoing violations of international law by Russia, why this conflict matters to the entire international community, and the importance of international law.

RSVP and Submit your Questions for the Panel

Panelists:

Jess Peake (Moderator) – Director, International and Comparative Law Program, UCLA School of Law

Dapo Akande – Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford

Professor Dapo Akande is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. He has held visiting professorships in the US and Europe, including at Yale Law School. He is one of the authors of the Oppenheim’s International Law: The United Nations (2017, OUP) which was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the American Society of International Law, and an editor of the Oxford Guide to International Humanitarian Law (2020). He is editor of the scholarly blog – EJIL:Talk! and has served on the editorial boards of several leading international law journals including the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law and the African Journal of International and Comparative Law. He has also served on the boards of scholarly societies and civil society organisations, including as Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law; Trustee of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law; on the Advisory Board of the International Centre for Transitional Justice; and as a member of the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability. From 2016–2018, he was on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Human Rights. He has acted as advocate, counsel or adviser in cases before international tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization. He has also acted as a consultant and advisor in cases in national courts, including the UK Supreme Court. He has acted as an advisor on international law issues to states, United Nations bodies, the African Union Commission, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). From January 2023, he will be a Member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

Mykola Gnatovskyy – Professor of International Law, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Dr Mykola Gnatovskyy (born in 1977) holds LL.M. (1999) and Ph.D. (2002) in International Law. He specialises in European and international human rights law, as well as in international humanitarian law and international criminal law. He has taught at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv since 2002, was a visiting professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv) between 2017 and 2020 and has delivered numerous guest lectures at various universities in Europe and Asia. In 2009-2021 Dr Gnatovskyy was a member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). He served as Vice-President of the CPT for two years (2013-2015) and as President of the CPT for six years (2015-2021). Dr Gnatovskyy is also First Vice-President of the Ukrainian Association of International Law and has been a member of editorial boards of international law journals and/or yearbooks published in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and the UK. Since late February 2022 he has advised the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on international criminal law.

Harold Koh – Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School

Harold Hongju Koh is Sterling Professor of International Law and former Dean (2004-09) at Yale Law School, where he has taught since 1985. A Korean-American, he graduated from Harvard, Magdalen College, Oxford (PPE Marshall Scholar 1977), and Harvard Law School, and has received 17 honorary degrees and more than thirty awards for his work in human rights and international law.

Professor Koh has served under four US presidents, as Senior Advisor (2021-present) and Legal Adviser to the US Secretary of State (2009-2013) (Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award), Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1998-2001),  and Attorney-Adviser at the US Department of Justice (1983-1985). He also served in the judicial branch, as a law clerk for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the US Supreme Court, and Judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. An Honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn and associated Member of the Blackstone Chambers, he is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and served as Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Clarendon Lecturer in Law at the Oxford Law Faculty, Oliver Smithies Lecturer at Balliol College, Waynflete Lecturer at Magdalen College, and Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science and Fellow of Trinity and Christ’s Colleges, Cambridge.

He is the author of eight books and more than 200 articles, has argued regularly before US and international courts, and testified frequently before the United States Congress. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, he is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, and received the Wolfgang Friedmann Award from Columbia Law School and the Louis B. Sohn Award from the American Bar Association for his lifetime achievements in international law. He is married to Attorney Mary-Christy Fisher and is the father of Emily and William. During his year at Balliol as Eastman Professor,  he will be affiliated with the Faculty of Law, the Blavatnik School of Government, and the Bonavero Human Rights Institute.

Philippa Web – Professor of Public International Law, King’s College London.

Professor Philippa Webb, Professor of Public International Law at King’s College London and a barrister at Twenty Essex chambers. She is a specialist in public international law and represents states, companies, organisations and individuals in domestic and international courts, including the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and the UK Supreme Court. She has been described as “the foremost expert on state immunity” and is a leading scholar on international dispute settlement and human rights (including the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, and the prohibition of genocide and modern slavery). She is the founding co-director of the Centre on International Governance and Dispute Resolution (CIGAD) at King’s College London and a member of the Public International Law Advisory Panel of the British Institute of International & Comparative Law. Philippa has held positions in the Presidency of the International Court of Justice, the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court and in United Nations Headquarters. Her publications include The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (OUP 2020, with A Clooney), Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations (2017, with R Higgins, D Akande, S Sivakumaran and J Sloan), and The Law of State Immunity (2015, with H Fox).

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