Self-Determination after the ICJ Chagos Advisory Opinion

Speaker: Prof. Marcelo Kohen (Graduate Institute Geneva)
Chair: Dr Danae Azaria (UCL)

About this lecture

Self-determination is a concept that has attracted much discussion at the theoretical and practical levels. Questions concerning its legal scope, the holder of the right and its content have been controversial. On 25 February 2019. the International Court of Justice rendered an advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 that shed light on these issues in a mnner that goes beyond the particulardispute the impact of this advisory opinion in the interpretation and application of this fundamental principle of general international law.

About the speaker

Marcelo G. Kohen is Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Member of the Institut de Droit International, and its Secretary General since 2015. Counsel and advocate for a number of states before the ICJ, the ITLOS and other tribunals. He also acts as an arbitrator. He has been Rapporteur for the International Law Association, the Council of Europe and the Institut de Droit International. Author of many publications in the field of international law, in English, French and Spanish. Awarded the Paul Guggenheim Prize in 1997 for his book Possession contestée et souveraineté territoriale. Last books: Research Handbook on Territorial Disputes in International Law (E.Elgar, 2018, ed. with M. Hébié) and The Institute of International Law's Resolution on State Succession and State Responsibility: Introduction, Text and Commentaries (Cambridge University Press, 2019, with Patrick Dumberry).

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