Patryk I. Labuda
Photo credit: International Nuremberg Principles Academy 2017
I am currently a fellow of the Polish Academy of Sciences. I was previously an Assistant Professor of (International) Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam and a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the New York University School of Law, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the University of Zurich.
Specialized in international (criminal) law, human rights, and peace and security studies, I have fourteen years of work and research experience in Africa, with a regional focus on the law, politics and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan and South Sudan. My current focus is on shifts in the global legal order and relations between the 'Global South' and 'Global East', especially Eastern Europe and Africa, in the wake of the Russo-Ukraine war.
In addition to a book with Oxford University Press, my work has featured in the Yale Journal of International Law, Leiden Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, and leading academic presses (here). I am a regular contributor to mainstream and social media (here).
Je travaille en français et en anglais.
Wykładam po polsku.
Follow my work on X (former Twitter).
Al Jazeera
Radio France Internationale
Just Security
Justice Info
My first book, International Criminal Tribunals & Domestic Accountability. In the Court's Shadow (OUP 2023), can be ordered at OUP and Amazon.
More on the book's arguments at book project and a few blurbs:
'...deftly exposes the paradox of the increasing turn to domestic prosecutions of international crimes, which he argues may empower authoritarian elites... Labuda’s thoughtful book is a must read for anyone interested in the future of international criminal law.'
Charles C. Jalloh, Distinguished University Professor, Florida International University
'In offering both broad historical context and fine-grained case study illustration, Labuda expands our understanding of complementarity in both theory and practice. Whatever one's opinion about the appropriate relationship between the International Criminal Court and national judiciaries, this book is an eye-opening and essential read.'
Kim Thuy Seelinger, Research Associate Professor, Brown School, Washington University; Special Adviser on Sexual Violence in Conflict to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
'a timely book...[that] assesses the relocation of the anti-impunity agenda closer to the locus of the crimes at the state level, and interrogates the important role that societal actors have to play in engaging national institutions in pursuing redress and accountability for atrocities. This is a superlative study that needs to be engaged with by analysts, policy-makers and practitioners of international criminal justice.'
Tim Murithi, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town, Professor of African Studies, University of the Free State and Stellenbosch University in South Africa
'Labuda’s work is to law what Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro is to the canvas – Labuda illuminates, places candles in the darkness, and reveals what is obscured. This excellent book offers wise counsel about how international criminal law enforcement can combat the increasingly illiberal swagger of our political times.'
Mark A. Drumbl, Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law and Director, Transnational Law Institute Washington and Lee University
Book launch: Geneva 16 October
Join us on Monday at 16:00 for a discussion about Patryk Labuda's new book ‘International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability. In The Court’s Shadow’.
The author will discuss the following questions with Michelle Jarvis, Deputy Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for #Syria and Kate Gibson, Defence Counsel before various international criminal tribunals, including the #ICC.
▶ How did domestic #accountability come to eclipse the dream of international criminal tribunals?
▶ What are the effects of this shift from international to domestic trials for the global fight against #impunity?
▶ How to critically reflect on the cliché that ‘the future of international criminal justice is domestic’?
Learn more and register: geneva-academy.ch/event/all-events/detail/411-the-complementarity-turn-domestic-justice-in-the-shadow-of-international-criminal-tribunals