Position(s) at the Institute

Professor, International Law

Head, International Law Department

Profile

PhD, University of Milan
Faculty member since 2002, Professor Bianchi was previously Full Professor at the Catholic University, Milan, and Associate Professor at the University of Parma. Until 2002, he was also Professorial Lecturer in International Law at the Bologna Centre of the Johns Hopkins University. His publications address topics that range from international human rights, international economic law, the law of jurisdiction and jurisdictional immunities to international environmental law, state responsibility and the law of treaties. Recently he has published works on international law and terrorism and on non-state actors. He is currently focusing on international law theory, with a special interest on normativity and law making processes. 

Areas of expertise

• Armed conflicts, violence
  
• Human rights
• International and targeted sanctions
• International courts and tribunals
• International humanitarian law
• International law (public, private)
• International organisations, UN
• Military occupation
• Terrorism, crime

Selected publications

Books:

• International Humanitarian Law and Terrorism, Oxford, 2011 (forthcoming)(Co-author with Yasmin Naqvi).
• Non-State-Actors and International Law, Dartmouth: Ashgate, 2009 (forthcoming, ISBN: 0 7546 2833 7). Individual Contribution: ‘Relativizing the Subjects or Subjectivizing the Actors? That is the Question.’
• Counterterrorism: Democracy’s Challenge, Oxford, 2008 (Co-edited with Professor Alexis Keller). Individual Contribution on: ‘International Law, Counter-terrorism and the Quest for Checks and Balances’, pp. 395-424.
• The Precautionary Principle in International and Community Law (in Italian:'Il principio precauzionale nel diritto internazionale e comutario')(Editor with Prof. M. Gestri, and contributor), Milan, pp. IX-544 (2006). Individual contribution:’Principi di diritto, modularità funzionale e relatività normativa: il concetto di precauzione nel diritto internazionale’ (Principles of Law, Functional Modularity and Relative Normativity: the Concept of Precaution in International Law), pp. 429-459.
• Enforcing International Law Norms against Terrrorism, (Editor and contributor), Oxford, pp.VII-549 (2004). Individual contribution: ‘Enforcing International Law Norms against Terrorism: Achievements and Prospects’, pp. 491-534.

Articles and book chapters:

• 'The Fight for Inclusion: Non-State Actors and International Law’, in: U. Fastenrath, R. Geiger, D.E. Khan, A. Paulus, S. von Schorlemer, C. Vedder (Eds.). From Bilateralism to Community Interest. Essays in Honour of Bruno Simma, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 (forthcoming), pp. 39-57;
• ‘Terrorism and Armed Conflicts: Insights from a Law and Literature Perspective’, 24 Leiden Journal of International Law 1-21 (2011)(forthcoming);
• ’Textual interpretation and (international) law reading: the myth of (in)determinacy and the genealogy of meaning’, in P. Bekker et al (eds.), Making Transnational Law Work in the Global Economy. Essays in Honour of Detlev Vagts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 34-56;
• ’Fear’s Legal Dimension. Counterterrorism and Human Rights’, in L. Boisson de Chazournes and M. Kohen (Eds.), Mélanges en l’honneur de Vera Gowlland, Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2010, pp. 175-192,
• ‘The international regulation of the use of force: the politics of interpretive method’, 22 Leiden Journal of International Law,  651-676 (2009);
• ‘State Responsibility and Criminal Liability of Individuals, in A. Cassese (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice, Oxford University Press, 16-24 (2009);
• ‘Looking ahead: international law’s main challenges’, in D. Armstrong (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of International Law, Routledge, 392-409 (2009);
• 'Human Rights and the Magic of Jus Cogens', 19 European Journal of International Law 491-508 (2008).

Some of Professor Bianchi’s papers are available on the Social Sciences research Network (SSRN).

Fellowship and activities

Professor Bianchi is a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Terrorism. From 2005 to 2008 he was the Co-Director of the University Forum of the Academic Society of Geneva on the topic ‘Democracy and Terrorism’, organised jointly by the Faculty of Law at the University of Geneva and HEI. He currently directs two research projects, funded by the Swiss National Fund for Research, respectively on ‘The Shifting Boundaries of Normativity in International Law’, and on ‘Transparency in International Law’ (with Professor Anne Peters of Basel University).

Recent scientific activities :

• Participant in the Annual Global Agenda Councils Meeting, organized by the World Economic Forum, Dubai, 29 November-1 December 2010-12-30
• Participant in the Conference on: ‘The Condition of International Law’, upon invitation by the Ditchley Foundation, Ditchley Park (UK), 21-23 May 2010
• Co-chair (together with Sir Michael Wood) of the Working Group on the Use of Force, in the framework of the Initiative for Developing the Leiden Policy Recommendations on Counter-terrorism and International Law (Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, in cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) (2008-2010).

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