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Thomas Sparks

LL.B, PhD (Dunelm), Senior Research Fellow

sparks@mpil.de
Tel. +49 (6221) 482-256

Main Fields of Research:

Public International law; Statehood; Sovereignty and Self-Determination; Creation of States; Legal Theory; International Environmental Law

Academic Career:

  • Since 2018: Senior Research Fellow at the MPIL
  • 2020/21:  Judicial Fellow, International Court of Justice (with Judge Peter Tomka)
  • 2013-2017: University of Durham, Ph.D.; Thesis title: Towards a Human-Centered International Law: Self-Determination and the Structure of the International Legal System.  European Research Council Studentship.
  • 2010-2013: University of Durham, Bachelor of Laws with Honours, First Class.

Recent Publications

  • The World is Burning, Urgently and Irreparably - a Plea for Interim Protection against Climatic Change at the ICJ. In: Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 22/2, 301-337 (2023). doi: 10.1163/15718034-bja10095 (with Nataša Nedeski, Gleider Henández).
  • Self-Determination in the International Legal System: Whose Claim, to What Right?. Hart, Oxford, 2023, 268 p. doi: 10.5040/9781509945092 Open Access
  • Natural Law Theories. In: The Elgar Encyclopaedia of Human Rights, Christina Binder, Manfred Nowak, Jane A Hofbauer, Philipp Janig (eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2022, 539-545. Edward Elgar
  • Special Issue: Grotian Moments in International Law. In: Grotiana 43(1), 1-186 (2022). doi: 10.1163/18760759-43010001 (with Mark Somos). Grotiana
  • Grotian Moments in the Law of Self-Determination: Law, Rhetoric, and Reality. In: Grotiana 43/1, 159-186 (2022). doi: 10.1163/18760759-43010008. Grotiana
  • Reassessing State Consent to Jurisdiction: the Indispensable Third Party Principle before the ICJ. In: Nordic Journal of International Law 91/2, 216-252 (2022). doi: 10.1163/15718107-91020005. Open Access
  • World Lawyers' Pledge on Climate Action. In: Environmental Policy and Law 51(6), 371-376 (2021). doi: 10.3233/EPL-219015 (with Saskia Stucki, Guillaume Futhazar, Bruce Ackerman, Fatou Bensouda, Lalit Bhasin, David R. Boyd, Chunghwan Choi, Martyn Day, Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot, Idayat Hassan, Donald W. Kaniaru, Helen Keller, Viviana Krsticevic, Antonio Oposa Jr., Anne Peters, Paulo Sérgio Pinto de Albuqueruqe, Flavia Piovesan, Caleb Pollard, Christina Voigt). EPL
  • Grotian Moments: An Introduction. In: Grotiana 42(2), 179-191 (2021). doi: 10.1163/18760759-42020003 (with Mark Somos). Grotiana
  • Special Issue: Grotian Moments in International Law. In: Grotiana 42(2), 179-372 (2021). doi: 10.1163/18760759-42020003 (with Mark Somos). Grotiana
  • The Place of the Environment in State of Nature Discourses: Reassessing Nature, Property and Sovereignty in the Anthropocene. In: The State of Nature: Histories of an Idea, Mark Somos, Anne Peters (eds.). Brill, Leiden 2021, 363-398. Pre-publication version on SSRN
  • Transparency Procedures. In: The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law, second edn., Lavanya Rajamani, Jacqueline Peel (eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2021, 904-919 (with Anne Peters). Publisher's website
  • Constitutions and Contagion – European Constitutional Systems and the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 81/1, 147-234 (2021). doi: 10.17104/0044-2348-2021-1-147 (with Angelo Jr Golia, Laura Hering, Carolyn Moser). Download
  • Categorising Self-Determination: Four Forms. In: German Yearbook of International Law 63, 223-254 (2020). doi: 10.3790/gyil.63.1.223 (with Gleider Hernández). Journal's Website
  • The Humanisation of Provisional Measures?—Plausibility and the Interim Protection of Rights Before the ICJ. In: Provisional Measures Issued by International Courts and Tribunals, Fulvio Palombino, Roberto Virzo, Giovanni Zarra (eds.). T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague 2020, 77-105 (with Mark Somos). Springer Link
  • Editorial: Animal Rights - Interconnections with Human Rights and the Environment. In: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 11(2), 149-155 (2020). doi: 10.4337/jhre.2020.02.00 (with Saskia Stucki, Visa Kurki). JHRE
  • Special Issue: Animal Rights - Interconnections with Human Rights and the Environment. In: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 11(2), 149-329 (2020) (with Saskia Stucki, Visa Kurki (eds.)). JHRE
  • The Protection of Animals through Human Rights. The Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights. In: Studies in Global Animal Law, Anne Peters (ed.). Springer, Heidelberg 2020, 153-171. Springer Open Access
  • The State. In: Concepts for International Law: Contributions to Disciplinary Thought, Jean d'Aspremont, Sahib Singh (eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2019. Publisher's website
  • Statehood in an Era of Sinking Islands. In: Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice, Tahseen Jafry (ed.). Routledge, Abingdon 2019, 83-99. Publisher's website
  • Book Review: Stilz, Anna: Territorial Sovereignty: A Philosophical Exploration, Oxford, 2019. In: Grotiana, 41(1), 237-245, 2020. Grotiana
  • Book Review: Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Astrid: The International Legal Personality of the Individual, Oxford, 2018. In: German Yearbook of International Law, 61, 594-597, 2018.

Blogposts

  • An Urgent Call for Climate Mainstreaming: World Lawyers’ Pledge on Climate Action. Völkerrechtsblog, 07. September 2021 (zusammen mit Saskia Stucki, Guillaume Futhazar, Erik Tuchtfeld, Hannah Foehr). Völkerrechtsblog
  • World Lawyers’ Pledge on Climate Action: An Urgent Call for Climate Mainstreaming. Verfassungsblog, 07. September 2021 (zusammen mit Saskia Stucki, Guillaume Futhazar, Erik Tuchtfeld, Hannah Foehr). Verfassungsblog
  • The Elephant in the (Court)Room: Interdependence of Human and Animal Rights in the Anthropocene. EJIL:Talk!, 09 June 2020 (with Saskia Stucki). EJIL:Talk!
  • Judging climate change obligations: Can the World Court rise to the occasion? Part I: Primary obligations to combat climate change. Völkerrechtsblog, 30 April 2020. doi: 10.17176/20200430-133351-0 (with Nataša Nedeski, Gleider Hernández). Völkerrechtblog
  • Judging climate change obligations: Can the World Court rise to the occasion? Part II: What role for international adjudication?. Völkerrechtsblog, 30 April 2020. doi: 10.17176/20200501-013422-0 (with Nataša Nedeski, Gleider Hernández). Völkerrechtsblog
  • The urgent, the plausible and the irreparable: the significance of lowering ICJ thresholds for provisional measures. Völkerrechtsblog, 2018 (with Mark Somos). Völkerrechtsblog
  • On history, geography, and radical change in international law: An interview with BS Chimni. Völkerrechtsblog, 2018 (with Silvia Steininger). Völkerrechtsblog

Working Papers

  • Constitutions and Contagion: European Constitutional Systems and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Max Planck Reserach Paper no. 2020-42, 2020. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3727240 (with Angelo Golia, Carolyn Moser, Laura Hering).
  • Reassessing State Consent to Jurisdiction: The Indispensable Third Party Principle before the ICJ. MPIL Research Paper No. 2020-22, 2020. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3635621.
  • The Place of the Environment in State of Nature Discourses: Reassessing Nature, Property and Sovereignty in the Anthropocene. MPIL Reserach Paper No. 2020-10, 26 March 2020, Forthcoming in Mark Somos and Anne Peters (eds.), The State of Nature: Histories of an Idea (Brill). doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3561671. SSRN
  • The Humanisation of Provisional Measures? Plausibility and the Interim Protection of Rights before the ICJ. MPIL Research Paper No. 2019-20, 18 October 2019. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3471141 (with Mark Somos). SSRN

Media

    MPG Wissen Was: Academics react to "Ecocide" (in German)

    Klimasünder vor Gericht | Ökozid – ein fiktives Zukunftsszenario | Faktencheck

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Presentations

11 Sep 2019 - 15 Sep 2019

Whose Atmosphere? Sovereignty, Acquisition, and Responsibility for Atmospheric Harms

ESIL Annual Conference

Athens

07 Jul 2019 - 13 Juli 2019

Protection of Animals through Human Rights: the Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights

XXVIII IVR World Congress

Luzern

16 May 2019 - 17 Mai 2019

Beyond “Internal” and “External”: Legitimacy and Legality in Self-Determination’s Claims

'Self-Determination of Peoples in Historical Perspective' Workshop

Tartu

11 Apr 2019

Comment

Martins Paprinskis, A.P. Sereni Lecture, 'The Indispensable Third Party Principle in International Law'

Bologna

07 Mar 2019 - 08 März 2019

Secessionary Self-Determination in the Contemporary World: Legality and Legitimacy

'We the People' Workshop

Durham

17 Jul 2017 - 21 Juli 2017

Whose Claim, to What Right? A Taxonomy of the Self-Determination Genus

XXVIII IVR World Congress

Lisbon

17 Jul 2017 - 21 Juli 2017

Beetles in Boxes and Rubies Called Blue: The Semiotics of the International Legal Concept of "State"

XXVIII IVR World Congress

Lisbon

08 Mar 2017

An Imponderable Future? Post-Brexit Scotland, IndyRef2, and the European Treaties

International Law Seminar Series

University of Edinburgh

05 Apr 2015 - 07 Apr 2015

Who Owns the State? Secession and Self-Determination after Kosovo

Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference

Lancaster

02 Dec 2014

"He who trusts to hope builds upon thin ice": Sovereignty and the Uncertain Foundations of International Order

Global Policy Institute Seminar Series

Durham

Teaching

Spring Semester 2020

University of Mannheim: International Organisations

Summer Term 2019

Heidelberg International Law Colloquium: Introduction to Climate Law

Summer term 2018

Heidelberg International Law Colloquium: The State in International Law: Creation, Destruction, Deconstruction

Honours

  • 2018: Winner, Global Policy North Research Network thesis prize for the dissertation "Towards a Human-Centered International Law" (Durham University, 2017)

 


 Research Funding

  • 2013-2017: European Research Council PhD Studentship (£13726 pa)
  • 2019-2020: Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung der Forderung der Wissenschaten, support for Individual in International Law Workshop (20.000€ - with Anne Peters)
  • 2019-2020: Deutsch Forschungs-Gemeinschaft, support for Individual in International Law Workshop (9.000€ - with Anne Peters)

Miscellaneous

  • Member of the Scientific Committee, World Forum on Climate Justice (Glasgow, 19-21 June 2019)
  • 2014-2020:  Member of the Board of Directors, Amnesty International UK Section
  • 2014-2019:  Assistant Editor, International Courts of General Jurisdiction section of the Oxford Reports on International Law
  • Coordinator (with Silvia Steininger and Francesca Iurlaro) of the Discussion Group Theory Talks