Professor Sarah Nouwen
- Professor of International Law
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About
Sarah Nouwen is Professor of International Law and Director of Post-Graduate Education.
She is also an Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of International Law, which encompasses EJIL: Talk! and EJIL: The Podcast!.
She lectures and supervises Public International Law; International Criminal Law; International Human Rights Law; Transitional Justice; Law and Peace Negotiations and Research Methods at both undergraduate and graduate level.
She was a Professor in International Law at the European University Institute (2020-2026), a Scholar in Residence at Columbia University, a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Buenos Aires), the inaugural Capita Selecta Visiting Professor in International Operational Law at the Swedish Defence University, a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, a Senior Fellow of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston, a visiting scholar at the Free University Amsterdam and a Research Associate of the Refugee Law Project, Makerere University, Kampala. She has given guest lectures at universities across the world.
In 2010-2011, she served as legal advisor to the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan, assisting in the negotiations between the Government of Sudan and the Government of Southern Sudan on issues of state succession and working on peace negotiations for Darfur.
She has advised on transitional justice, peace negotiations and the rule of law for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New York, The Hague and Sudan and for the UK Department for International Development in Darfur. She worked with an NGO in Senegal on microfinance.
She has also served as an expert in international arbitration.
She holds an LLM (cum laude, Utrecht, with a specialisation in Cape Town), an MPhil in International Relations (Cantab) and a PhD in International Law (Cantab).
Some media interviews are available here:
https://n1info.rs/vesti/smrt-ratka-mladica-u-hagu-otvorila-pitanje/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAsbqijVTIE
The Law Show, ‘Genocide, war crimes and justice’, BBC4, March 2025 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028syf
https://www.globalplayer.com/catchup/lbcnews/uk/episodes/2zGobfqRRYYP4PJqgy8LE5WVP5/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdYs1cMfxII,
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/interview-prof-sara-nouwen-the-possibility-of-transitional-justice-in-sudan
http://ilareporter.org.au/2017/03/sarah-nouwen/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-international-criminal-court_us_582c6ea5e4b0e39c1fa7312f
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cvlmb
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/bashir-sweeps-sudan-election-150427111551251.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/24/israel-palestine-icc_n_6524798.html
Some of the publications listed below are also available via Nouwen's SSRN Author Page.
2006-
Cambridge University, PhD student International Law
2004-2005
Cambridge University, MPhil International Relations
1999-2004
Utrecht University, LLM Dutch Law (cum laude) specialisations: civil law and international public law
2002
University of Cape Town, LLM course human rights law
University of Western Cape, LLM course transitional law
1998-1999
Utrecht University, propaedeutics Dutch Law (cum laude)
1992-1998
Grammar school Gymnasium Erasmianum Rotterdam
Workexperience, traineeships and internships
2005-2006
Aug-Aug: Netherlands Embassy Khartoum, Legal and Political Advisor (good governance, rule of law) and consultant for the Assessment and Evaluation Commission on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
2004
Febr-July: Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs the Hague, Secretary to the Commission on Preemptive Action of the Advisory Council on International Affairs
2001-2004
Utrecht University, Research-assistant international law
2003
Oct-Dec: Loyens & Loeff (law firm) Rotterdam ,research international commercial arbitrations
2003
July-Sept: Plan International (INGO) Senegal, research on microfinance in Senegal
2003
Jan-March: Loyens & Loeff Paris, legal assistant in international commercial arbitrations
2000
Aug-Dec: Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations in New York, assistant to the ambassador for the Security Council
Prizes and scholarships
2006-2009
Gates Scholarship for PhD in international law in Cambridge
2005
Fellow of the Cambridge European Society
2004
Cambridge European Trust scholarship for MPhil in Cambridge
2004
“Talent scholarship” Netherlands government for study in Cambridge
1998
Nickel Erasmus Prize Gymnasium Erasmianum
1995
Finalist OCW-Shakespeare-competition
Other activities:
2006
Aug: Teaching international humanitarian law to lawyers in Darfur, Sudan
2006
March: presenting paper annual conference International Studies Association, San Diego
2004-
Reporter for the International Law Association (Berlin, Toronto)
2004
Organising and teaching a course Transitional Justice
2002
Teaching in townships of Cape Town
Research
Trained in both international law and international relations, Sarah Nouwen works on the intersections of law and politics, war and peace and justice and the rule of law. Building on her experience in diplomacy and peace negotiations, her research focuses on how international law plays out in concrete situations. It combines doctrinal analysis and theory with empirical research and draws on law, politics, and anthropology.
Her book Complementarity in the Line of Fire: The Catalysing Effect of the International Criminal Court in Uganda and Sudan (Cambridge University Press, 2013) explores whether, how and why the complementarity principle in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has had a catalysing effect on the legal systems of Uganda and Sudan. She spent many months in both countries, interviewing officials, observing proceedings and searching documents to discover whether domestic legal reforms have taken place in response to the Court’s involvement. She also served as a Visiting Professional for an ICC judge.
Her article on the research behind her book, "`As you set out for Ithaka': Practical, Epistemological, Ethical and Existential Questions About Socio-legal Empirical Research in Conflict", won the Leiden Journal of International Law Prize for best article published in 2013-2015. The jury praised the work for being "truly interdisciplinary and empirically grounded".
Her current research programme "Peacemaking: What's Law Got to Do with It", funded by a Philip Leverhulme Prize, an ESRC Future Research Leaders Grant and the Newton Trust, explores the role of international law in peace negotiations.
She has developed a wide range of experiential learning pedagogies in international law.
International Criminal Law (in particular courts and tribunals), International Human Rights Law,
Transitional Justice
Law on the Use of Force, Humanitarian Intervention, Peacekeeping
United Nations
Rule of Law promotion
International Relations
Sudan
Uganda
Supervisor(s): Dr Roger O'Keefe
Research centres: Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL)