Team and Contact

Maximilian Beyer is a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Chair of International Law at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. His fields of research include the relationship between human rights and the environment and law and media regulation.

Rishiti studied law in the UK and Netherlands and holds an LLM Cum Laude in Public International Law. Her academic research centres on digital rights, gender discrimination studies, TWAIL, feminist legal scholarship, and critical approaches to International and European law. She currently works in ethics and regulation of emergent tech and human rights, privacy, and sustainable development.

Khaled studied law at the University of Potsdam and at Université Paris Nanterre. He is currently a research assistant at the Chair of European and International Law at the University of Potsdam. His research interests focus on international environmental law, the law of the sea, and procedural law of international courts and tribunals.

Polina Kulish is a research fellow and PhD candidate at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. During her PhD project, she completed a Bluebook Traineeship at the European Commission in 2022/2023. Her research encompasses the law of international organizations, including the UN, EU, EEA, and EAEU, as well as international security law and media law. Currently, Polina is exploring the nature of member states’ compliance within international organizations. She is a former recipient of a Konrad Adenauer Foundation scholarship, and has been actively involved in moot court communities as a participant, coach, and judge.

Miriam Nomanni is a legal trainee at the Kammergericht in Berlin and a doctoral candidate in Marburg, currently working on her doctoral thesis entitled “Der Strafvollzug an Verurteilten nach dem Völkerstrafgesetzbuch”. Her fields of research include international criminal law and its tribunals as well as universal jurisdiction and the enforcement of sentences relating to international crimes.

Christian is a doctoral student at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main and a member of the research field ‘Knowledge of the Production of Normativity’ as well as the working group ‘Regime Theory’ at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory. His research focuses on the intersection of the law of the sea (UNCLOS), methods of global legal history, historical international relations and comparative international law.

Hendrik is Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) and Lecturer at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research focuses on the role of norms in international and transnational relations, particularly in the fields of the use of force, the history of international law and transnational labour relations. One of his current research projects examines The Justification of War and International Order: From Past to Present (OUP 2021, together with Lothar Brock).

Sebastian M. Spitra is a Post-Doc Fellow at the Department for Legal and Constitutional History of the University of Vienna and a member of the Junge Akademie at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. His fields of research include the history of international law, postcolonial legal studies, cultural heritage law and global legal history.

Anna is a PhD candidate at Humboldt University Berlin and holds a scholarship from the Heinrich Böll Foundation. She is currently working as a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law with the humanet3 research project, which is based in Berlin at the Centre for Human and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Her fields of research areas are international law and international legal theory, law and technology studies as well as Global (Internet) Governance research.

Justine is a Research Assistant in International Law and a Law Clerk (‘Rechtsreferendarin’) at the Higher Court Berlin. She studied law in Potsdam and Paris Nanterre, and holds a Master of Laws in International Law from University College London (UCL). Her fields of research include International Human Rights Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, and Fundamental Rights.

Céline is a PhD candidate within the State Silence Research Project (ERC funded) at University College London (UCL). Her current research focuses on non-appearance in inter-state disputes before international courts. Her main fields of interest cover public international law, international adjudication, human rights, and EU law.

Jessica Commins holds a Bachelor of Civil Law with History for University College Dublin and an LLM in Public International Law from the University of Amsterdam. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she focuses on patients’ rights and digitalisation of healthcare. She was also Junior Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Amsterdam and Legal Researcher at Sovereign Nature Initiative. Her main research interests include health and human rights, sustainability and environmental law, and digital rights and governance.

Davidzo Elizabeth Dhumbura is an LLD candidate with the Chair in Urban Law and Sustainability Governance, Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her research interests include critical approaches to international law, particularly TWAIL, international environmental law, sustainability governance, and indigenous law approaches. She is also the co-chair of South Africa Branch of International Law Association (SABILA) Network for Young Scholars and Practitioners.

Rouven Diekjobst is a PhD candidate at Ruhr-University Bochum and a Research Associate at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV). Previously, he studied law at the University of Oxford and Ruhr-University Bochum. His research interests include international law and armed conflict and international environmental law as well as German and comparative constitutional law and theory.

Philipp is a PhD Candidate at the Walther Schucking Institute for International Law and legal clerk at the Kammergericht Berlin. His research interests include international criminal justice, political theory, legal aesthetics and environmental law.

Liyu is a PhD in Law Candidate at the University of Cambridge. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge International Law Journal. Her fields of research include the law of state responsibility, community interests in international law and the history and theory of international law.

Antonio is a Junior Researcher in International Human Rights Law at the T.M.C. Asser Institute in the Hague, he was previously a Research Assistant to Professor Sandesh Sivakumaran at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, he also served as a General Editor to the Cambridge International Law Journal. Antonio holds an LL.B. from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, a Certificate in Transnational Law from the Georgetown CTLS and an LL.M. in International Law from Cambridge.

Louisa Hadadi studied law with a specialization in public international and EU law at Universität Hamburg, Universidad de Chile and China-EU School of Law. Currently, she pursues an LLM in international criminal law at Universiteit van Amsterdam and Columbia Law School, which is funded by a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She is also one of two DGVN youth observers to the upcoming session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Her research interests include critical approaches to international law, international criminal law and human rights law.

Julian A. Hettihewa is currently a lecturer at the University of Bonn and
a law clerk at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne. He was a PhD student
and a research assistant at the Institute for Public International Law at
the University of Bonn. He studied law in Berlin and London and is an
editor at Völkerrechtsblog

Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Tilburg University. She is a RUB Research School Gateway Fellow, a member of Ruhr-University’s SYLFF Mikrokolleg on Forced Migration and a Convener of the ESIL Interest Group on Migration and Refugee Law. Her research interests include international refugee law, human rights law, treaty interpretation and the law of international responsibility.

Dr. Meike Krakau is a legal clerk at the Higher Regional Court in Munich. Her research interests include international environmental law with a special focus on climate change litigation, human rights law and international adjudication.

Dr. Isabel Lischewski is a postdoctoral Research Assistant with Prof. Dr. Nora Markard at the University of Münster. Her research interests lie in global governance, critical theory, and access to justice.

Fatima Mehmood is a Lecturer of Laws for the University of London International Programmes taught at Universal College Lahore, Pakistan. Fatima teaches modules on Public International Law, and Jurisprudence & Legal Theory. Fatima holds a First Class LL.B. (Hons) from the University of London and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Her research interests include self-determination and secession, TWAIL, and genocide studies. Her past publications include, among others, a case study of Kashmir in light of external self-determination and remedial secession, cyberwarfare and the Rome Statute, and the extraterritoriality of the non-refoulement obligation under the Refugee Convention. Fatima is currently on leave from the Editorial Team.

Raphael Oidtmann currently serves as a parliamentary and legal advisor to the State Parliament of Hesse and holds further appointments as adjunct lecturer at Mannheim Law School, as associate researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and as associate postgraduate (‘doctorant associé’) at the Centre Marc Bloch Berlin. In addition, he currently works on an interdisciplinary PhD project as an external PhD candidate at Goethe University Frankfurt.

His current fields of research include international (criminal) courts and tribunals with a special focus on the actorness in international relations, the interplay of pandemics and international law as well as (theoretical) questions pertaining to areas of limited statehood (including the Arctic, Antarctica, or the High Seas).

Alicja is a PhD candidate and research associate at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg and a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. She studied social sciences in France and Singapore, and criminal law in Scotland. Her research interests include international criminal law enforcement, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and the politics of human rights.

Daniela is a legal trainee at the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe. She studied law at Humboldt University Berlin and Maastricht University. Her research interests include human rights law, socio-legal studies and critical approaches to International Law. Daniela is part of the Völkerrechtspodcast team.

Muratcan Sabuncu is a PhD student in international law at the universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Basel. He is currently a law intern for his admission to the Istanbul Bar Association.

Dani Spizzichino is PhD student supervised by Dr. Itamar Mann at the University of Haifa, faculty of law. His research focuses on ecocide law, critical theory, and socio-legal approaches to human rights law.

Erik studied law in Heidelberg, Buenos Aires, and Glasgow. He is a research fellow and PhD candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, where he heads the humanet3 group, an interdisciplinary research group established by three Max Planck Institutes on the human-centered digital transformation. His main research fields are platform regulation and the protection of freedom of expression as well as the right to privacy in the digital realm. Within this framework, he’s also interested in the use of AI technologies in public discourse and for mass surveillance.

Jasmin Wachau is a doctoral researcher and research fellow at the Assistant Professorship of Public International Law and International Administrative Law at the University of Erfurt. She studied international and European law in Dresden, Strasbourg, Graz and Antwerp. Her research interests include internet governance, human rights law and comparative law.

Carla is studying Law at Ruhr-University Bochum. As a student assistant at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV), she joined Völkerrechtsblog in March 2025.

Theresa is studying International Relations and Law (B.A.) at the University of Erfurt. As a student assistant to Prof. Dr. Michael Riegner, she joined Völkerrechtsblog in March 2025.