PHD THESIS

Title: The UN Secretariat and the Progressive Development of International Law

PhD Supervisor: Nico krisch 

Expected Completion Date: 2025

Research project analyses the UN Secretariat’s participation in the progressive development of international law, with a special focus on international peace and security. Progressive development here is used in its broad sense—progressing the law in areas where states have not yet settled on the content of a legal rule. I hypothesise that the Secretariat plays a substantive role in the formulation of international law, one often overlooked by states – and one which has reverberating, sometimes indirect, effects on the form and content of legal rules. This is especially true, I argue, with reference to the broad family of law related to peace and security—from the Genocide Convention to the Rome Statute and Responsibility to Protect. Sources consulted for this project include the broad categories of formal sources contained within article 38(1) of the ICJ Statute, along with official UN publications, travaux preparatoires, institutional archives, and a variety of secondary sources. 

PROFILE

Ashley (Ash) Stanley-Ryan is a Teaching Assistant at the Geneva Academy and a PhD candidate in international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute. His doctoral research applies a socio-legal lens to secretariat engagement in international lawmaking. Prior to his doctoral studies, Ash was a member of the editorial team of the International Review of the Red Cross, a peer-reviewed academic journal produced by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Ash has guest lectured on international law at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. He previously served as the student editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Journal of Public and International law, and also assisted New Zealand’s national IHL Committee in 2017 and 2018. He has previously published on disarmament law and international human rights law.

Ash holds a bachelor of laws and a bachelor of arts (international relations) from Te Herenga Waka, and an LLM summa cum laude from the Geneva Graduate Institute. He is admitted to the New Zealand bar. His professional experience includes working with a magic circle law firm, United Nations Human Rights, and New Zealand’s delegation to the United Nations in New York.

Ash was one of the two centenary recipients of the prestigious diploma of the Hague Academy of International Law, and is just the third New Zealander ever to receive the diploma. His doctoral research examines the role of the United Nations Secretariat in the development of international law, particularly law related to international peace and security.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
 

• Law and History
• Public International Law
• TWAIL and Critical Theory
• International Lawmaking 
• The International Civil Service
•  International Humanitarian Law 
   

Publications and works
 

• The UN Secretariat, the Genocide Convention, and the Progressive Development of International Law (ANZSIL Annual Conference 2023)
• Ka mua, ka Muri: He Whakaputanga, Concealed Indigenous Histories, and the Making of International Law (ANZLHS Annual Conference 2022) "Emerging Voices" International Review of the Red Cross  914 2021 (thematic editor)
• JC and Others v Belgium: the Delicate Balance of State Immunity and Human Dignity (Strasbourg Observers, 2022)
• Achieving Chemical Weapons Convention Compliance in the Aftermath of Khan Shaykhun (NZJPIL 16(1), 2018)

ACADEMIC WORK EXPERIENCEs

Teaching Experience

• Teaching Assistant at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
• Guest Lecturer (International Law), Victoria University of Wellington 2021
• Editorial Team, International Review of the Red Cross 2020-2021
• Student Editor-In-Chief, New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law 2019
• Research Assistant, Victoria University of Wellington 2017-2019

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCEs
 

• Associate, International Committee of the Red Cross (2020-2021)
• Intern, United Nations Human Rights 2020
• New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New York delegation (2018-2019)
• Intern, Clifford Chance Hong Kong (2018)

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
 

• Diploma of the Hague Academy of International Law, 2023
• Nominated for the Sir Francis Forbes Society Prize for Australian Legal History, 2022
• (2021-2022) Graduate Institute Scholarship

affiliations 

Enrolled Barrister and Solicitor of the high court of New Zealand | Te Kōti Matua o Aotearoa