Martti Koskenniemi

Academy Professor of International Law and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki

Martti Koskenniemi is Academy Professor of International Law and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, and a Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School. He was a member of the Finnish diplomatic service from 1978-1994, during which time he held senior positions including Acting Director of the International Law Division (1991-1994), Attaché, First Secretary and Counsellor, International Law Division (1978-1989), Counsellor (Legal Affairs) Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations (1989-1991), and Vice-consul of Finland in Marseilles (1979-1980). He was Counsel of Finland in the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion Concerning the Legality of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo (2009), and Co-Agent of Finland responsible for the organization of the Finnish case at the International Court of Justice in the Case concerning Passage through the Great Belt (Finland v. Denmark) (1991-1992). He has been a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations and a Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the Asian Development Bank. His major publications include From Apology to Utopia; The Structure of International Legal Argument (CUP 2005 [1989]), The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (CUP 2001), The Politics of International Law (Hart 2011), and The Cambridge Companion to International Law (CUP 2012, co-edited with James Crawford). He is currently working on a history of international legal thought from the late medieval period to the 19th century. He has been awarded honorary doctorates in law by the Universities of Uppsala, Frankfurt and McGill.