Our New Visiting Fellow: Natia Kalandarishvili-Mueller

On the world map, the Geneva Academy is the place for IHL teaching and analysis. The Geneva Academy is a hub of vibrant IHL research. It is a place of constant learning and interesting events dedicated to understanding some of the most pressing issues in IHL theory and practice. My desire to spend a research stay at the Geneva Academy is based on all this.

It feels like coming home. I owe much of my knowledge in IHL to the Geneva Academy. Studying IHL under Professor Sassòli’s supervision was a great privilege for me as an LLM student from Georgia. I’ve been dearly missing the ambience of the Geneva Academy and to be back, is truly a joy. I fondly remember studying here. And to be able to carry out my research within these walls is a bliss.

My research will focus on conceptualising extraterritorial non-international armed conflicts in IHL.

As is known, there are only two types of armed conflicts in IHL: international and non-international. Hence, how can extraterritorial non-international armed conflicts be conceptualised in light of the IHL framework’s applicability? Into which category and with which types of armed conflicts can they be placed? Should they be regarded as a third, new category of armed conflicts? This is what my research will focus on.

My research will contribute to filling a gap left in classifying such armed conflicts through the prism of IHL.

I expect to be actively working on my own research topic, being in parallel engaged with colleagues and the wider research community on other contested issues of IHL. I am very much looking forward to this. I would like to thank the Geneva Academy for this opportunity.