Pursuing Justice for Russia’s War Crimes in Ukraine: Recent Developments on the Legal Front

 

Speaker Bios:
Ron Levi is Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the Department of Sociology, and is Distinguished Professor of Global Justice. He holds a courtesy cross-appointment to the Faculty of Law, and is a Permanent Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen.Ron has served as Secretary of the Law and Society Association, and as an elected Council Member for the Sociology of Law section of the American Sociological Association. He was made Chevalier in l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government, is a recipient of the Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize, and has served as Scholar-in-Residence for Holocaust Education Week. In 2022, he received the Global Educator Award from the University of Toronto.  

 

Gabriele Chlevickaite is an Assistant Professor in Empirical and Normative Studies at the VU Amsterdam (Faculty of Law, Criminology and Criminal Law Department), where she conducts research into fact-finding in international criminal investigations. She is a board member of the Center for International Criminal Justice (www.cicj.org), an interdisciplinary research centre at the VU Amsterdam and a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) in Amsterdam, where she conducted my NWO Research Talent-funded PhD research in 2017-2021. In 2013-2017, she was an analysis assistant at the International Criminal Court, and in 2020-2021 she was a research assistant with the Independent Expert Review of the International Criminal Court.  

 

Monica Eppinger, Associate Professor; Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law, Center for International and Comparative Law. Eppinger has published ten articles or peer-reviewed essays in journals including the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, the George Washington International Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. She has been a featured expert on the law of war, Russia, and Ukraine on CNN, public radio, and in local print and broadcast news media.In 2011, the American Society of Comparative Law selected the working draft of her article on the institution of private property in Ukraine, "Unraveling the Illiberal Commons," as one of six papers discussed at its annual works-in-progress workshop held at Yale Law School. Her work on property was also selected for the 2011 Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum. Her work in international law, on the law of war, was selected for the 2011 Childress Symposium, the 2013 Ewha Comfort Women Conference (Seoul, Korea), and the 2014 Cornell Law School Comfort Women Conference.Before entering academia, Eppinger served in the United States diplomatic corps as a tenured Foreign Service Officer for nine years, with tours of duty or policy-making experience in Nigeria, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Caspian energy, and West African security. She was awarded an individual Superior Honor Award, the State Department's highest civilian honor, in 1999.  

 

Ilona Khmeleva holds a PhD in Law specializing in International Law (Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). Since 2021 she coordinates the project "Ukraine in Europe: Parliamentary Dimension" (implemented by LibMod in partnership with the East Europe Foundation) and is an expert in the field of international law and international relations. Ilona Khmeleva is a member of the Ukrainian Association of International Law, author of numerous scientific publications.  

 

Oleksandr Merezhko, Professor and Doctor of Law in International Law, namely in such areas as international public law, international diplomatic law, international treaties law, EU law, international environmental law, law of international organizations, etc. He is a specialist in international treaties and international economic law. Doctor of Legal Sciences, thesis: “Theory and Principles of Transnational Trade Law (Lex Mercatoria)” (Ukraine, 2002). Candidate of Legal Sciences (PhD), thesis: “Humanitarian Intervention and International Law” (Ukraine, 1996). People`s Deputy, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Interparliamentary Ties of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vice-President of Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe.  

 

Afonso Seixas-Nunes obtained a PhD from the University of Essex in 2019, with a thesis entitled ‘The legitimacy and accountability for the development of autonomous weapon systems under international humanitarian law’. Between 2018-2020, Afonso worked as a visiting scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government under the supervision of Professor Dapo Akande.He taught various legal subjects at the Porto Law School and at Essex Law School and currently also lectures at the Universidad de Deusto in Spain. His areas of interests are international law and the use of force; international humanitarian law and the challenges of new technologies of warfare for international law; and state responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law caused by artificial devices.Afonso Seixas-Nunes is a Jesuit Priest, having been ordained in 2010. He is currently a Junior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, Oxford University.