Dr. Valentina Azarova joined the Centre for Global Public Law, Koç University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in September 2016. She is also a legal adviser to the Global Legal Action Network’s (GLAN) legal committee since 2015 — a collective working on legal actions that challenge interstate and private dealings with abusive regimes through non-judicial domestic regulatory processes — and a member of the Recognition/Non-Recognition Committee of the International Law Association (ILA).

Valentina taught international law and human rights for six years. She co-founded, directed and lectured on the BA in human rights and international law at Al-Quds Bard College, Al-Quds University (2009-2013), and lectured on the MA in Human Rights & Democracy at Birzeit University (2014-5). She was also a lecturer at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon (2016-7) where she piloted an international human rights clinic. She has delivered guest lectures on the joint Leiden and Istanbul universities summer school (July 2015) and on the Bilgi University Pre-Academic OSF summer programme (August 2015); at Bard College, New York University, Toronto University and American University in Cairo.  In 2015/6, she was a Research Fellow at the Birzeit University, Institute of Law, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Legal Studies Department, Central European University.

She has nearly a decade of experience advising and consulting for inter-governmental, international and local non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Diakonia, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), EuroMed Rights, and Al-Haq.  The focus of her pracitioner engagements is the Israel/Palestine context, and the non-judicial regulatory approach to enforcement. She continues to advise rights groups’ work in these areas, and participate in conservations about method and means in human rights research and advocacy.

Her current research analyses the dymanics of compliance and enforcement of international law, with a focus on international human rights and humanitarian law. She is particularly interested in transnational legal processes, the relationship between international and domestic law, and third party peer enforcement of international law. She has published on the application of international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law to Palestine, and is currently finalising a manuscript on international law and contemporary belligerent occupations.

Valentina holds a first-class honours LLB (Honours) in European Legal Studies from the University of Westminster, London, a Certificate of Transnational Law (CDT) from the LLM in International and European Law programme at the University of Geneva, and a PhD from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, Ireland.

Academic Publications

Book Chapters

— ‘Illegal De Facto Regimes: On the Operation of International Law in Russia’s Illegally-Annexed Crimea’, in Gnatovskyy, Sayapin and Tsybulenko (eds.), The International Legal Dimensions of the Conflict in Ukraine (forthcoming, TMC Asser Press 2017).

— ‘The Bounds of (Il)legality: Home-State Regulation of Overseas Business and Corporate Involvement in Internationally Unlawful Acts’, in Ekaterina Yahyaoui (ed.), Human Rights and Power in Times of Globalisation (forthcoming, Brill 2017).

— ‘The 2014 Gaza War: Reflections on Jus ad Bellum, Jus in Bello and Accountability’, in Annyssa Bellal (ed.), The War Report 2014 (Oxford University Press, 2015) (with Sharon Weill).

— ‘Tell It To the Judge: Palestine’s UN Bid and the International Criminal Court’, in Mutaz Qafisheh (ed.), Membership of Palestine in the UN: Legal and Political Implications (Cambridge Scholars, 2013).

— ‘Article 1D’, in Zimmermann, Andreas (ed.), Commentary on the Refugee Convention 1951 (Oxford University Press, 2010) (with Mutaz Qafisheh).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

— ‘Mending the Gaps: The Status and Consequence of Morocco’s Activities in Western Sahara in International Law and Practice’, Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (forthcoming 2017).

— ‘Legal Pathologies in International Law: The Structural Illegalities of Israel’s Military Justice System’, Questions of International Law (forthcoming 2017).

— ‘Review Essay: Neo-Colonial Transformations of Occupied Territory — and of the International Law of Belligerent Occupation?’, Palestine Yearbook of International Law (forthcoming 2017).

— ‘Why the ICC Needs A ‘Palestine Situation’ (More Than Palestine Needs the ICC): On the Court’s Potential Role(s) in the Israeli-Palestinian Context’, Diritti umani e diritto internazionale Vol 11, No 1 (2017) (with Triestino Mariniello).

— ‘Review Essay: A Healthy Dose of Wartime Normative Realism’, Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2016).

— ‘Whither the Law of Occupation at the ECtHR? A Note on Chiragov et al. v Armenia’, 54 International Legal Materials (2015).

— ‘From Discretion to Necessity: Third State Responsibility for Israel’s Control of Stay and Entry into Palestinian Territory’, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Vol 6, No 2 (2014) 327-355.

— ‘An International Legal Demarche for Human Rights? Prospects and Perils of the Palestinian UN Bid’, International Journal of Human Rights, Vol 18, No 4-5, (2014) 527-544.

— ‘UNESCO, Palestine and the Archaeology of Conflict’, Denver Journal of International Law & Policy, Vol 41 (2013) (with David Keane).

— ‘Israel’s Unwillingness: Follow-Up Investigations to the UN Gaza Conflict Fact-Finding Mission Report’, International Criminal Law Review, Vol 12, No 4 (2012) (with Sharon Weill).

— ‘Trickle-Down Legality: The Roles of the International Courts in Achieving Palestine’s Independence’, Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2012).

— ‘Belligerency’ and ‘Suspension of Hostilities’, Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Public International Law, (first published online 2010) forthcoming in MPEPIL (Oxford 2016) (with Ido Blum).

— ‘Introductory note to the UK House of Lords EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State of the Home Department judgment’, International Legal Materials, Vol 48, No 1 (2009).

— ‘The Kadi-Decision of the ECJ – A Pyrrhic Victory of Human Rights at the Costs of International Law?’, Hanse Law Review, Vol 5, No 1 (2009) (with Franz Ebert).

— ‘Internationalisation and Attribution: The Tadic Analysis in the Genocide in Bosnia Case’, University of Westminster School of Law Research PaperNo. 09-11; Westminster Centre of International Law and Theory Working Paper No. 2009/2.

Selected Commentary

— ‘On the Logics of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 on Israeli Settlements’, JURIST – Academic Commentary, 21 February 2017.

— ‘Boycotts, International Law Enforcement and the UK’s ‘Anti-Boycott’ Note’, JURIST – Academic Commentary, 12 April 2016.

— ‘On business and human rights in illegal territorial regimes’, Opinio Juris, 26 January 2016.

— ‘ICC action and the domestic effects of transnational criminality’, open GlobalRights, 16 June 2015.

— with Chantal Meloni, ‘Disentangling the Knots: A Comment on Ambos’ ‘Palestine, Non-Member State Observer Status and ICC Jurisdiction’’, European Journal of International Law: Talk!, May 2014.

— with Nidal Sliman, ‘Can Palestinians Advance their Rights through UNESCO?’, Foreign Policy, 11 November 2013.

— ‘Legal House-Keeping in the EU,’ Open Democracy, 31 July 2013.

— ‘Investigative or Political Barriers? Dutch Prosecutor Dismisses Criminal Complicity Case Against Riwal’, Rights as Usual, 29 May 2013.

— ‘Backtracking on Responsibility: French Court Absolves Veolia for Unlawful Railway Construction in Occupied Territory’, Rights as Usual, 1 May 2013.

— ‘Exploiting A ‘Dynamic’ Interpretation? The Israeli High Court of Justice Accepts the Legality of Israel’s Quarrying Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’, European Journal of International Law: Talk!, 7 February 2012.

— ‘Disingenuous “Disengagement”: Israel’s Occupation of the Gaza Strip and the Protective Function of the Law of Belligerent Occupation’, and ‘Operationalising Functionality: Questioning the Term ‘Functional’’, Opinio Juris, 26-29 April 2012.

Valentina Azarova
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Law School