Two Alumni Edit a Major Volume on International Humanitarian Law

Brill Publishers

9 October 2018

Two alumni of our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (LLM), Dražan Djukić and Niccolò Pons, are the editors of an important volume on international humanitarian law (IHL) that has just been published by Brill Publishers.

The Companion to International Humanitarian Law discusses, via seven essays, the contemporary challenges to implementing IHL and covers, via 263 entries, the vast majority of IHL concepts, starting with ‘Abandoned Explosive Ordnance’ and ending with ‘Wounded and Sick’.

‘Working in the field of international criminal justice, what struck us was the absence of a book that collected all major IHL notions in a single volume, accessible enough to quickly enable a variety of users to familiarize themselves with IHL issues in their daily work and sufficiently comprehensive to allow more demanding users to conduct further research’ stress Dražan Djukić, Associate Legal Officer at the Pre-Trial Division of the International Criminal Court and Niccolò Pons, Associate Legal Officer at the Registry’s Chambers Legal Support Unit of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

‘The project proved to be an amazing experience since we benefitted from the advice of very experienced colleagues and we were lucky enough to secure contributions from a range of amazing authors. We hope that the Companion to International Humanitarian Law contributes to further improving the understanding and application of IHL’ they add.

Contributions by Geneva Academy’s Alumni, Researchers, Teaching Assistants and Faculty Members

Besides the two editors, several Geneva Academy’s alumni, researchers, teaching assistants and Faculty members, including Vincent Chetail, Gabriella Citroni, Antonio Coco, Alex Conte, George Dvaladze, Gloria Gaggioli, Robert Kolb, Sandra Krähenmann, Elvina Pothelet, Alice Priddy and Nils Melzer, contributed to the volume by writing entries on key IHL concepts.

Of the seven essays that address contemporary challenges to IHL, Alessandra Spadaro, Teaching Assistant in our LLM and in our Executive Master in International Law in Armed Conflict and PhD candidate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, wrote one of them on IHL in the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals and courts. Etienne Kuster, an alumnus of our LLM and Adviser for relations with academic circles at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), wrote another essay on promoting the teaching of IHL in Universities, based on ICRC’s experience.

‘I am full of admiration for our alumni who manage simultaneously to apply what they learned in practice and to develop it in scholarly writings. This is an ideal example of how the Geneva Academy can contribute to a world in which international humanitarian law is better respected, applied and understood’ underlines Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.