As a subsidiary structure of the
European Society of International Law (ESIL-SEDI), the Interest Group on International Legal Theory (IGILT) was created in May 2006, at the Society’s biannual conference in Paris. In December of the same year, the IGILT elected its first coordinating committee.
Its general terms of reference establish the IGILT as a specialized forum dedicated to research and sustained discussion of matters concerning international legal theory. The IGILT conducts all such activitites against the background of
ESIL's mission statement and within the framework of the Society’s own events.
All IGILT projects, initiatives, and day-to-day affairs are run by a coordinating committee. The committee consists of seven members. The membership of the committee is determined by election.
The chief functions and responsibilities of the coordinating committee are determined by the
ESIL by-laws.
Current members of the coordinating committee:
Fleur Johns is a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Sydney Centre for International Law within the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, teaching and conducting research mainly in public international law and legal theory. Fleur is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (BA, LLB (Hons)) and Harvard Law School (LLM, SJD). She is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Leiden Journal of International Law (co-editor, Articles), the Australian Journal of Human Rights, and the journal Global Peace, Change & Security, a former Primary Editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal and former Book Review Editor with the Sydney Law Review. Fleur practised at the New York Bar for six years before embarking upon an academic career, and has worked with a number of non-governmental and international organizations in Australia and elsewhere.
Aeyal Gross teaches at the Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law. He received his LL.B. from Tel-Aviv and his S.J.D. at Harvard Law School. He was awarded the Diploma in Human Rights from the European University Institute and interned with the European Commission on Human Rights in Strasbourg. He served on the board of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. He is currently a visiting fellow with the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and teaching as a visitor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, both at the University of London. His research interests include: International, Constitutional, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law; the Law of Occupation; Health Rights; Sexuality and the Law and Queer Theory; and Critical Theories of Law. He published and lectured in Israel, Europe, North America and South Africa.
Jörg Kammerhofer (Mag. iur., Dr. iur., Vienna; LL.M., Cantab) is currently a member of the Hans Kelsen Research Group at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, which will publish a collected works edition of all of Hans Kelsen's academic writings. He has recently completed his doctorate's thesis on international legal theory ('Uncertainty in international law. What does it look like, what causes it?') and has published articles inter alia on the theoretical problems of customary international law, on self-defence under the Charter, on the International Court of Justice and on Kelsen's conception of international law. His main academic interests are the general, theoretical and procedural aspects of public international law and the theory/philosophy of law.
Umut Özsu is an S.J.D. candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. In addition to a B.A. (philosophy) from the University of Alberta, he holds an M.A. (philosophy), J.D., and LL.M. from the University of Toronto. His research interests lie principally in public international law, the history and theory of international law, comparative legal studies, and critical theory. More specifically, he is interested in the international legal implications of nation-building and humanitarian intervention, a particular source of concern being the (relatively under-examined) experiences of states on the semi-periphery of the international legal order. He also maintains a strong general interest in legal and political theories of state sovereignty. For details, please see Umut's
homepage.
Sundhya Pahuja is Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne Law School where she researches and teaches mainly in the areas of public international law, international economic law, law and developments, law and globalisation and legal theory. She is co-director of the Research Programme in Law and Development at the Institute for International Law and the Humanities and Director of Studies for the LLM in Law and Development. Sundhya serves on the boards of the Australian Feminist Law Journal and the Melbourne Journal of International Law. She has lived, studied, worked and taught in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America.
Dr. Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral, LL.B./J.D., (Complutense, Madrid), M.A. (HEI, Geneva), M.Phil.10' and S.J.D. cand. 13' in Jurisprudence (Seville), Ph.D. 10' in International Law/International Relations (Graduate Institute.Geneva), LL.M. 11' (Harvard Law School) is a Fellow of Royal College Complutense at Harvard University. For further academic background, and his list of publications visit:
http://www.ignaciodelarasilla.org/
Akbar Rasulov lectures in international law at the University of Glasgow. He holds degrees from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan), Universities of Essex and Hull (UK), and Harvard Law School (US). His main interests lie in international legal theory, international law of nationalism, law and development, and broader questions of international public order. He is the author of "International Law and the Poststructuralist Challenge", 19 Lei. J. Int'l L. 799 (2006). He is a member of the Uzbek bar.
Mortimer Sellers is Regents Professor of the University System of Maryland and of the University of Maryland Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy and Director of the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law. He was educated at Oxford University (B.C.L., D.Phil.) and Harvard University (A.B., J.D.) and is editor of the Springer Verlag book series AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice. Professor Sellers' most recent books include "Republican Principles in International Law: The Fundamental Requirements of a Just World Order" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and "Universal Human Rights: Moral Order in a Divided World" (edited with David Reidy, 2005). He was the editor of the publication "International Legal Theory" from 1996 to 2008 and of "Ius Gentium" from 2001 to present.
Disclaimer: Neither the coordinating committee nor any of its members bear responsibility for any financial or logistical aspects of the IGILT’s activities. Unless otherwise stipulated, all IGILT activities are self-financed and self-supporting.
