Featuring esteemed experts Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Amir Farhadi, Professor Tom Dannenbaum, and Senior Fellow Tim Potier, the conversation will focus on the legal intricacies of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We will touch on Armenia’s claims before the International Court of Justice and the significance of enforcement vis-à-vis the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) regarding regional peace and stability. We will also delve into the principles of international criminal law, cultural heritage protection, and regional geopolitics.
The event is open to the public. A coffee reception will be held before the event. Please register via the Google Form here to attend the event in person or virtually. We will provide you with the Zoom details in your confirmation email message.
Tom Dannenbaum is Associate Professor of International Law at The Fletcher School, where he is also Co-Director of the Center for International Law and Governance and Co-Director of the LLM Program. Prior to joining Fletcher, he taught at University College London and Yale Law School. Dannenbaum writes on the law of armed conflict, the law governing the use of force, international criminal law, human rights, shared responsibility, and international judging. His articles have appeared in a range of leading journals and have received multiple awards, including the American Society of International Law’s (ASIL) International Legal Theory Scholarship Prize in 2022 for his work on siege starvation and ASIL’s Lieber Prize in 2017 for his work on the crime of aggression. His writing on peacekeeping has been cited by the Hague Court of Appeal and the International Law Commission. Dannenbaum’s book, The Crime of Aggression, Humanity, and the Soldier, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. In 2021, Dannenbaum was awarded the James L. Paddock Teaching Award. In 2022, he was awarded the Fletcher Faculty Research Award.
Amir Ardelan Farhadi focuses his practice on public international law and international arbitration. Amir has advised governments, international organizations, and private entities on a wide range of topics of international law, including human rights, investment law, cultural heritage, immunities, and international criminal law. Farhadi previously clerked for a Judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and served in the legal office of UNESCO in Paris. He holds a Diploma from the Hague Academy of International Law. Dually trained in the common law and civil law traditions, he also practices both commercial and investment arbitration before most major arbitral institutions. He has acted as counsel in disputes in the mining, oil and gas, telecommunications, and real estate sectors in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Before joining Foley Hoag, Farhadi practiced arbitration at a leading international law firm in both Washington, D.C. and Paris.
Yeghishe Kirakosyan holds the position of the Representative of Armenia on International Legal Matters. In this capacity, Kirakosyan represents Armenia in pending cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), International Court of Justice (ICJ), investment and commercial arbitrations, foreign courts, and mediation. He has extensive experience working with the government since 2008, having acted as an Assistant to the Prime Minister, Deputy Minister of Justice, and Adviser to the Prime Minister. Since 2021, Kirakosyan has been the Agent of Armenia at the ICJ in the case concerning the Application of the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan) and the case concerning the Application of the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Azerbaijan v. Armenia). Apart from public service, since 2006, Kirakosyan has been teaching courses on Public International Law, Precedent in International Law, International Courts, and Arbitration. His research and academic focus includes international courts and arbitration, responsibility in international law, countermeasures, and enforcement of international law.
Tim Potier has been living in and working on the countries of the former Soviet Union for nearly 30 years. From 2017 until 2022, he was living in Moscow and working in the Department of International Law at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University). He left Russia almost one month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. He is a Senior Fellow in the Center for International Law and Governance at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A former member of Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, he was a Visiting Professor at the College during Easter term 2022 and worked at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law as Visiting Fellow. At the beginning of February 2023, he finished writing the book, International Law at a Crossroads. He is currently working on two books, which he expects to have completed by the end of August. One of these will be a second revised edition of his earlier monograph, Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia: A Legal Appraisal (2001). The other book is on Roman Succession Law.