Professor of International Law
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
Sandesh Sivakumaran is Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, and Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge. He is a Senior Fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare, United States Military Academy (West Point), Fellow of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, and Fellow of the Centre on Armed Groups. He was previously Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham, Visiting Professor at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, 2022 Lieber Scholar at the Lieber Institute, non-resident research scholar at the United States Naval War College Stockton Center for International Law and has held visiting fellowships at Melbourne Law School and New York University School of Law.
Sandesh has published on a variety of topics in public international law. He is the author of The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2012), which was awarded the International Committee of the Red Cross Paul Reuter Prize, the American Society of International Law Francis Lieber Prize, and the European Society of International Law Book Prize. He is one of the authors of Oppenheim's International Law: United Nations (Oxford University Press, 2017)(with Dame Rosalyn Higgins, Philippa Webb, Dapo Akande and James Sloan), which was awarded the American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit. He is co-author of Cases and Materials on International Law (Sweet and Maxwell, 9 ed, 2020)(with David Harris) and co-editor of International Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 4 ed, 2022)(with Daniel Moeckli and Sangeeta Shah). He has published in leading journals including the European Journal of International Law, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly and the Human Rights Quarterly. His article on the courts of armed groups was awarded the Journal of International Criminal Justice Giorgio La Pira prize and the Antonio Cassese prize. His work has been cited by, among others, the UK, Netherlands, and Israeli Supreme Courts; the Colombian Constitutional Court; the International Criminal Court; the International Law Commission; and UN commissions of inquiry.
Sandesh advises and acts as expert for a range of states, international organizations and non-governmental organizations. He is a member of the Reading Committee of the ICRC's Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, a member of the advisory board of Geneva Call, and was a member of the Core Group of Experts for the Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict. Sandesh regularly trains diplomats, members of the armed forces, and UN entities on international law and the law of armed conflict. He is a member of the Bar of the State of New York.
Prior to entering academia, Sandesh's professional experience included: Fellow of the International Bar Association and Associate Legal Officer to Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen at the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda; Judicial Fellow to Judges Dame Rosalyn Higgins and Peter Tomka at the International Court of Justice; and Intern for former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, at Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative.
Sandesh holds an MA and PhD from the University of Cambridge and an LLM from New York University School of Law where he was a Hauser Global Scholar.
Postal address: Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, 5 Cranmer Road, Cambridge CB3 9BL, United Kingdom
Selected publications
Books
Making and Shaping the Law of Armed Conflict (ed), 2024)
International Human Rights Law (with Daniel Moeckli; Sangeeta Shah) (eds), 2022) 4th Edition
Cases and Materials on International Law (with David Harris), 2020) 9th Edition
Asia-Pacific Perspectives on International Humanitarian law (with Suzannah Linton; Tim McCormack) (eds), 2019)
Oppenheim's International Law: United Nations (with Rosalyn Higgins; Philippa Webb; Dapo Akande; James Sloan), 2017)
The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict, 2012)
Articles
"Crafting the Prohibition on Violence against Women under International Human Rights Law" (2025) European Journal of International Law
"Assessing the authority of the ICRC Customary IHL Study" (2022) 104 International Review of the Red Cross 1856
"The Use of International Human Rights Law in the Universal Periodic Review " (2021) 21 Human Rights Law Review 264
"Making and Shaping the Law of Armed Conflict" (2018) 71 Current Legal Problems 119-160
"Armed Conflict Related Detention of Particularly Vulnerable Persons" (2018) 94 International Law Studies 39-74
"Techniques in International Law-Making: Extrapolation, Analogy, Form and the Emergence of an International Law of Disaster Relief" (2017) 28 European Journal of International Law 1097-1132
"The Influence of Teachings of Publicists on the Development of International Law" (2017) 66 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 1-37
"The Role of State-Empowered Entities in the Making and Shaping of International Law" (2017) 55 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 342-394
"Exclusion Zones in the Law of Armed Conflict at Sea" (2016) 92 International Law Studies 153-203
"Arbitrary Withholding of Consent to Humanitarian Assistance in Situations of Disaster" (2015) 64 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 501-531
"Exclusion from Refugee Status: Article 1F(c) of the Refugee Convention and the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations" (2014) 26 International Journal of Refugee Law 350-381
"Superior Responsibility in Irregular Groups" (2012) 10 Journal of International Criminal Justice 1129-1150
"Lawmaking by Non-State Actors: Engaging Armed Groups in the Creation of International Humanitarian Law" (2012) 37 Yale Journal of International Law 107-152
"Re-Envisaging the International Law of Internal Armed Conflict" (2011) 22 European Journal of International Law 219-264
"Re-Envisaging the International Law of Internal Armed Conflict: A Reply to Gabriella Blum" (2011) 22 European Journal of International Law 273-275
"Lessons for the Law of Armed Conflict from Commitments of Armed Groups: Identification of Legitimate Targets and Prisoners of War" (2011) 93 International Review of the Red Cross 463-482
"War Crimes before the Special Court for Sierra Leone" (2010) 8 Journal of International Criminal Justice 1009-1034
"Lost in Translation: UN Responses to Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys in Time of Armed Conflict" (2010) 92 International Review of the Red Cross 259-277
"Courts of Armed Opposition Groups: Fair Trials or Summary Justice?" (2009) 7 Journal of International Criminal Justice 489-513
"Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed Conflict" (2007) 18 European Journal of International Law 253-276
"Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro)" (2007) 56 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 695-708
"Binding Armed Opposition Groups" (2006) 55 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 369-394
"Torture in International Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law: The Actor and the ad hoc Tribunals" (2005) 18 Leiden Journal of International Law 541-556
"The Rights of Migrant Workers One Year On: Transformation or Consolidation?" (2004) 36(1) Georgetown Journal of International Law 113-153
"Complementing UN Human Rights Efforts Through Universal Periodic Review" (2024) 16 Journal of Human Rights Practice 794-818
Book Chapters
"The Development of International Humanitarian Law by the International Committee of the Red Cross" in Sandesh Sivakumaran and Christian Burne (ed(s)), Making and Shaping the Law of Armed Conflict), forthcoming
"The Sources of International Law" (with Anthea Roberts) in Malcolm Evans (ed(s)), International Law), forthcoming
"State Silence and the Law of Armed Conflict" in Danae Azaria (ed(s)), State Silence Across International Law: Meaning, Context, and Developments, 2025)
"Article 69" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 71" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 76" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 77" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 78" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 79" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 80" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 81" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 120" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"Article 70" in ICRC (ed(s)), Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, 2020)
"The Role of Asia-Pacific States in the Development of International Humanitarian Law" in Suzannah Linton, Tim McCormack and Sandesh Sivakumaran (ed(s)), Asia-Pacific Perspectives on International Humanitarian Law, 2019)
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