Professor Sandesh Sivakumaran

Sandesh Sivakumaran is Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Law, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Law at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, Fellow of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, and Fellow of the Centre on Armed Groups.

He was previously Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham, and Visiting Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He was the 2022 Lieber Scholar and Senior Fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare, United States Military Academy (West Point), 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 Harris' Cases and Materials on International Law (Sweet and Maxwell, 10 ed, 2026)(with Andrew Sanger) 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 German Federal Constitutional Court, 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