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Alexander Wentker

Dr, MJur (Oxford), Maître en droit (Paris II) | Senior Research Fellow

wentker@mpil.de

Main Fields of Research:

General Public International Law; Use of Force in International Law; International Humanitarian Law; International Human Rights Law; International Dispute Settlement; German Constitutional Law; EU Law; Transitional Justice

Academic Career:

2024: Senior Research Fellow MPIL Research Group "Shades of Illegality in International Peace and Security Law"

  • 2022 – 2024 | Legal Traineeship (Referendariat) at the Higher Regional Court of Berlin (Kammergericht), 2024 Second Legal State Examination
  • 2018-2022 | Research Fellow/ Senoir Research Fellow – MPIL Research Group "Shades of Illegality in International Peace and Security Law"
  • 2019 - 2022 | doctoral studies in law - University of Oxford; thesis: Party Status to Armed Conflict in International Law
  • 2017 – 2018 | Judicial Clerk – Supreme Court of Namibia, Windhoek
  • 2017 | Intern – United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, New York
  • 2016-2017 | Master (Magister Juris (MJur)) – University of Oxford
  • 2016 | First Legal State Examination
  • 2015 – 2016 | Master (Maîtrise en droit) – Université Paris II – Panthéon-Assas, specialisation in international law
  • 2012 – 2016 | law studies – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, joint-degree programme Humboldt European Law School
  • 2012 – 2013 | Research Assistant – Universität Potsdam, chair in European and German constitutional Law, administrative law, social law, and public business law
  • 2011 – 2012 | law studies – Universität Potsdam, binational Franco-German law program

 

Recent Publications

  • Party Status to Armed Conflict in International Law. Oxford Monographs in International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2024, 336 p., forthcoming book announcement
  • Neutrality. In: Research Handbook of Legal Theory and War, Tom Dannenbaum, Eliav Lieblich (eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2024, forthcoming.
  • Inter-State Assistance in War under International Law. In: German Yearbook of International Law 66 (2023), forthcoming (with Claus Kreß).
  • Identifying co-parties to armed conflict in international law: How and why states, international organizations and armed groups become parties to war. Chatham House Research Paper, 2024 (with contributions from Miles Jackson and Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne). open access
  • At War? Party Status and the War in Ukraine. In: Leiden Journal of International Law 35, 643-656 (2023). open access
  • Kriegspartei? Sicherheitspolitischer Diskurs und Völkerrecht im Ukraine-Krieg. In: DÖV 75, 988-995 (2022).
  • L’assistance d’États tiers dans la guerre d’Ukraine au regard du droit international. In: Annuaire Français de Droit International 68, 173-192 (2022) (with Claus Kreß).
  • Partnered Operations and the Positive Duties of Co-Parites. In: Journal of Conflict & Security Law 27, 159-184 (2022). https://academic.oup.com/jcsl/article/27...
  • Die amerikanische Ausnahme [The American Exception]. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), 08.02.2021, p. 15. (with Richard Dören) FAZ
  • Purpose-based regulation of consent to non-forcible interventions. In: Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht /Heidelberg Journal of International Law 79, 671- (2019).
  • Nichtteilnahme als Grenzphänomen zwischenstaatlicher Gerichts- und Schiedsverfahren – die Fälle South China Sea und Arctic Sunrise. In: Grenzen des Rechts, Marie-Claire Foblets, Dirk Hanschel, Armin Höland (eds.). Universitätsverlag, Halle-Wittenberg 2018, 39-90.
  • Serdar Mohammed v Ministry of Defence, Appeal judgment [2017] UKSC 2. International Law in Domestic Courts 2803, 2018. https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/...

Blogposts

  • Conspicuously Absent: The Indispensable Third Party Principle at the ICJ in Nicaragua v Germany. Verfassungsblog, 14 March 2024 (with Robert Stendel). https://verfassungsblog.de/conspicuously...
  • At War: When Do States Supporting Ukraine or Russia become Parties to the Conflict and What Would that Mean?. EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law, 14 March 2022. https://www.ejiltalk.org/at-war-when-do-...
  • Jurisdictional Immunities in the New York Southern District Court? The case of Rukoro et al. v. Federal Republic of Germany. EJIL:Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law, 13 August 2018 (with Richard Dören). https://www.ejiltalk.org/jurisdictional-...
  • Venezuela’s Non-Participation Before the ICJ in the Dispute Over the Essequibo Region. EJIL:Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law, 29 June 2018. https://www.ejiltalk.org/venezuelas-non-...

Working Papers

Media

  • Interview mit Völkerrechtler Alexander Wentker. In: Bayrischer Rundfunkt (BR24), 14.03.2024. ARD Mediathek
  • Meret Baumann, 'Taurus-Marschflugkörper oder gar Bodentruppen für die Ukraine: Ab wann ist ein Land Kriegspartei?'. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 09.03.2024. https://www.nzz.ch/international/taurus-...
  • Samuel Kirsch, 'Völkerrechtler zu Scholz-Aussage: Kriegseintritt durch Taurus-Lieferungen?'. In: ZDF heute, 28.02.2024. https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/a...
  • Panzer wichtiger als Wärmepumpen. In: NDR Info (Podcast Streitkräfte und Strategien), 13.06.2023. ARD Audiothek
  • Völkerrechtler: "Nicht Kriegspartei durch Kampfpanzer-Lieferung. In: NDR Info, 26.01.2023. ARD Audiothek
  • Deutsche Kamfpanzer für die Ukraine: 3 Fragen, 3 Antworten’. In: Tagesschau (Instagram), 25.01.2023. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highli...
  • Charlotte Greipl and Jan Henrich, 'Völkerrecht zu Panzerlieferungen: Wann wird man Kriegspartei?'. In: ZDF heute, 24.01.2023. https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/k...
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  • Carla Reveland and Pascal Siggelkow, 'Hinrichtungen oder vorgetäuschte Kapitulation?'. In: Tagesschau, 22.11.2022. https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/v...
  • Russische Kriegsverbrechen in der Ukraine. In: 3Sat Kulturzeit, 20.09.2022. https://www.3sat.de/kultur/kulturzeit/ru...
  • Pascal Siggelkow, ‘Zivile Opfer bewusst in Kauf genommen?’. In: Tagesschau, 17.08.2022. https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/u...
  • Sophie Schuberth et al., ‘Der Kriegsparteistatus: It’s complicated – mit Alexander Wentker’. In: Völkerrechtspodcast, 08.07.2022. https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/de/19-der-...
  • Helene Bubrowski, ‘Was Russland alles nicht darf. Welche Folgen hätte ein Eintritt Deutschlands in den Ukrainekrieg?’. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 16.05.2022, p. 10.
  • Interview: "Waffenlieferungen und Ausbildung: Sind wir jetzt Kriegspartei?". In: FAZ-Einspruch Podcast, 04.05.2022. (with Helene Bubrowski) https://www.faz.net/podcasts/f-a-z-einsp...
  • Interview: "Kriegspartei zu werden ist nicht per se verboten". In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, 10.05.2022, p. 17. https://www.rnz.de/politik/hintergrund_a...

Presentations

11 Nov 2023

Neutrality and Aggression in the Contemporary International Law of Peace and Security

American Society of International Law (Midyear Meeting, University of Pittburgh Lawschool)

08 Nov 2023

Co-Parties to Armed Conflict in International Law – Legal Implications and Practical Recommendations

Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London

24 Apr 2023

Changing Perceptions of the Use of Force

European Society of International Law (Research Forum, Tartu)

11 Jan 2023

Legal Criteria for Identifying Co-Parties to Armed Conflict in International Law

Chatham House – The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London

06 Dec 2022

Wer wird Kriegspartei? Militärische Unterstützung im politischen Diskurs und Völkerrecht [Who becomes a belligerent? Military assistance in political discourse and international law]

Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart

14 Nov 2022

At War? Party Status and the War in Ukraine

Minerva Centre Conference on the War in Ukraine, Hebrew University Jerusalem

22 Sep 2022

Der Konfliktparteistatus im Völkerrecht [Party Status to Armed Conflict in International Law]

German Society for Military Law and the Laws of War, Freie Universität Berlin

16 Jun 2022

Völkerrechtsbruch und Völkerrechtsordnung: Implikationen und Perspektiven der gegenwärtigen Krise (in German)

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Humanities - Workshop with the German Federal Foreign Office

22 Mar 2022

Neutrality, Use of Force, and Party Status in the Russian War of Aggression against Ukraine

MPIL Heidelberg

24 Sep 2021

Partners as Co-Parties

Università La Sapienza, Rome (conference on Partnered Operations in International Law, European Society of International Law and American Society of International Law) programme

23 Sep 2021

Peace, peace operations, and safe zones (Panel Moderation)

MPIL Heidelberg, Conference on Contested Norms of International Peace and Security Law

01 Jul 2019

The Rukoro Case – Germany's colonial atrocities before US courts and issues of State immunity

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg (with Richard Dören)

12 Nov 2018

The International Court of Justice's Provisional Measures Order in the Treaty of Amity case (Iran v US)

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg

14 Sep 2018

Ist Krieg ein Weg zum Frieden? (Panel Diskussion mit Christian Marxsen, Paulina Starski, Carolyn Moser und Alexandra Kemmerer)

Max Planck Day 2018, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Heidelberg

Teaching

SoSe 2024

Colloquium in International Law

Universität Heidelberg (with Jannika Jahn and Malcolm Jorgensen)

WS 2023/24

International Dispute Settlement

FU Berlin (Lehrauftrag, with Robert Stendel)

SoSe 2022

International Dispute Settlement

FU Berlin (Lectureship, with Robert Stendel)

SoSe 2021

International Dispute Settlement

FU Berlin (Lectureship, with Robert Stendel)

WS 2020/21

International Dispute Settlement

FU Berlin (lectureship, with Robert Stendel)

SoSe 2019

International Dispute Settlement

FU Berlin (Lehrauftrag, with Robert Stendel)

Honours

2023 | German Thesis Award of the Körber Foundation (Second Prize, Arts and Humanities Section)

2022 | Helmuth-James-von-Moltke Prize of the German Society for Military Law and the Laws of War

2019 - 2022 | German National Academic Foundation (doctoral scholarship) 

2019 - 2022 | Clarendon Scholarship, University of Oxford

2017 - 2018 | Oxford Bonavero Fellowship 

2017 | Oxford Global Justice Fellowship 

2017 | Clifford Chance Prize Proxime Accessit (for the second best overall performance in the MJur Oxford)

2017 | Law Faculty Prize International Law and Armed Conflict of the University of Oxford

2016 & 2017 | Law Faculty Prizes of Humboldt-Universität (First Legal State Examination and Specialization)     

2016 – 2017 | Haniel Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation and the Haniel Foundation 

2016 – 2017 | German Academic Exchange Service [DAAD] LLM scholarship

2011 – 2017 | German National Academic Foundation scholarship

2013 – 2014 | Studienkolleg zu Berlin fellowship

Memberships

European Society of International Law (ESIL)

American Society of International Law

German Society for Military Law and the Laws of War

Miscellaneous

Languages

 German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian