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
  

[more]

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)


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Presentations

Teaching

Honours

Miscellaneous