Oana Ichim, who received her PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute, was awarded Special Mention of the English-Speaking René Cassin Thesis Prize, an award created to highlight doctoral research in the field of human rights. 

“My thesis depicts the various manifestations of the tension between the governing and the dispute settlement capacity of the Strasbourg regime”, said Mrs Ichim. “It analyses the evolution of this tension and, most importantly, explains its manifestations at the level of the judicial and remedial strategies, and eventually, clarifies, through the same prism, the low perspectives of success of the various reform proposals”.   

“Dr Oana Ichim is to be congratulated on being recognised by this jury for her very insightful analysis of the work of the European Court of Human Rights”, said Andrew Clapham, Professor of International Law and Dr Ichim’s thesis director. “On reading the thesis one gains a real understanding of how the Court has evolved and the dilemmas facing the judges when it comes to deciding what sort of role they want the Court to have”. 

As of September 2019, Mrs Ichim will work with Professor Fuad Zarbiyev on his SNF-funded project, "The Domain of International Adjudication: Why Sovereign States Abandon Decision Control?" Her current research interests also include law and artificial intelligence.  

Previous winners of the English-Speaking René Cassin Thesis Prize from the Graduate Institute include Alessandra La Vaccara in 2018 for her thesis, “When the Conflict Ends, While Uncertainty Continues: Accounting for Missing Persons between War in Peace in International Law”, as well as Mrs Ichim’s husband, Octavian Ichim, who was awarded the prize in 2013 for his thesis on “Just Satisfaction under the European Union on Human Rights”.