Bio
Lorenzo Gasbarri is Associate Professor of International Law, Director of the 'Master in Electoral Policy and Administration', Director of the training programme 'Rule of Law and Judicial Cooperation in Africa', Director of the project 'SheVotes Africa', and Vice-coordinator of the 'PhD in Human Rights, Global Politics and Sustainability'. He is also a convener of the interest group on international organizations of the European Society of International Law and member of the Italian Society of International law.
Lorenzo previously worked at Bocconi University, University College London, and the University of Helsinki. He was Visiting Professor at Central European University and at the University of Barcelona, and held research fellowships at the centre of excellence iCourts (University of Copenhagen) and at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.
He has earned a PhD in International Law from the University of Milan, a Master in international law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, a Bachelor and Master in Legal Studies, and a Bachelor in Modern Literature from the University of Florence.
His research focuses on public international law, the law of international organizations, and human rights law. Lorenzo's first book, 'The Concept of an International Organization in International Law', was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press in the series Oxford Monographs in International Law and was mentioned among the Favourite Readings of 2021 by 'EJIL:Talk!'. In 2024, it was translated into Chinese and published by China Social Science Press. The book provides a novel categorization of the existing views and notions of how international organizations are conceptualized in international law, and elaborates an original theory of their nature.
He has also published numerous papers in leading journals, such as the European Journal of International Law, the International Organizations Law Review, and the Journal of International Dispute Settlement. His article 'The Notion of Institutional Practice in United Nations Law', published in 2021 by the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nation Law, received the 2022 SIDI Prize, awarded by the Italian Society of International Law. Several of its articles are included in the Bibliography of the International Court of Justice.
Research
- International Law
- International Organizations
- Human Rights
Publications
Books
- 国际法上国际组织的概念 (China Social Science Press 2024). Translation of ‘The Concept of an International Organizations in International Law’ by Prof. HU Desheng. Available here.
- The Concept of an International Organization in International Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford Monographs in International Law, 2021). Available here.
EJIL:Talk! Favourite Readings of 2021
Mentioned in the Bibliography of the International Court of Justice 2020-2022
Reviewed by Christiane Ahlborn, for the British Yearbook of International Law (2023), Orfeas Chasapis Tassinis for the International Organizations Law Review (2023)20, Martina Buscemi for the Italian Review of International and Comparative Law (2022)2. Vlog for ‘diritti comparati’.
Edited Volume
- ‘Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of the Law of International Organizations’ (Edward Elgar, forthcoming) (with Niccolò Ridi and Christiane Ahlborn)
Editor of Special Issues
- ‘Introduction: Contested Fundamentals of the Law of International Organizations: Repositioning legal Theory’ (2023) 20 International Organizations Law Review 1. Available here.
Articles
- ‘The Participation of Private Stakeholders in International Tourism Governance’ (2025)1-21 Nordic Journal of International Law. Available here.
- ‘Lex Specialis and Eurocentrism’ (2025 forthcoming) International Organizations Law Review
- ‘How to Write a Judgment: Creative Writing and International Adjudication’ (2025) Journal of International Dispute Settlement. Available here.
- ‘The Role of Previous Resolutions in the Practice of the UN Security Council’ (2023) 61/3 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 101 (with Niccolò Ridi). Available here.
- ‘The Thin Line Between Farce and Tragedy: My Covid Story Between Italy and Guatemala’ (2022) 20/3 International Journal of Constitutional Law. Available here.
- ‘(Meta) Grotian Moment: International Organizations and the Rapid Formation of Customary International Law’ (2022) 43/1 Grotiana 113. Available here.
- 'The Notion of Institutional Practice in United Nations Law' (2021) 24 Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 3 (Premio SIDI 2022). Available here. (Mentioned in the Bibliography of the International Court of Justice 2020-2022)
- ‘On the Benefit of Reinventing the Wheel: The Notion of Single Internationally Wrongful Act’ (2020) 31-4 European Journal of International Law 1223. Available here.
- ‘The European Union is not a State: International Responsibility for Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Activities’ (2020) 7 Maritime Safety and Security Law Journal 62. Available here.
- ‘The Dual Legality of the Rules of International Organizations’ (2017) 14/1 International Organizations Law Review 87. Available here.
- Analysis, Agenda of the International Labour Conference Addendum Proposals for the abrogation of Conventions Nos 4, 15, 28, 41, 60 and 67 (GB.325/INS/2(Add.)), 4 April 2017, OXIO 194, Oxford Reports on International Law: International Organizations, Oxford University Press, 2017. Available here.
- Analysis, Follow-up to the discussion on the protection of Employers’ and Workers’ delegates to the International Labour Conference and members of the Governing Body in relation to the authorities of a State of which they are a national or a representative (GB.328/LILS/1), 28 March 2017, OXIO 151, Oxford Reports on International Law: International Organizations, Oxford University Press 2017. Available here.
- ‘Al-Dulimi and the Competing Concepts of International Organizations’ (2016) European Papers –European Forum – Insight. Available here.
- Analysis, Protection of Employers’ and Workers’ delegates to the International Labour Conference and members of the Governing Body in relation to the authorities of a State of which they are a national or a representative (GB.325/LILS/1), 19 July 2016, OXIO 72, Oxford Reports on International Law: International Organizations, Oxford University Press 2016. Available here.
- Analysis, Matters relating to the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO: workload and effectiveness of the Tribunal (GB.325/PFA/9/1(Rev.)), 1 March 2016, OXIO 68, Oxford Reports on International Law: International Organizations, Oxford University Press 2016. Available here.
- ‘Responsabilità di un’organizzazione internazionale in materie di sua competenza esclusiva: imputazione e obbligo di risultato secondo il Tribunale Internazionale per il Diritto del Mare’ (2015) 98/3 Rivista di Diritto Internazionale 911.
Book Chapters
- The Employment of Human Rights to Demand Accountability for Activities of International Organizations Harming Individuals’ in Kristin Henrard and Michelle Duin, Research Handbook on Accountability for Human Rights Violations (Edward Elgar 2025). Available here.
- ‘State Silence and International Space Law’ in Danae Azaria (ed) State Silence Across International Law: Meaning, Context and Developments (Oxford University Press 2025). Available here.
- ‘Ten Years Spent Attributing the Conduct to an International Organization’ in Rossana Deplano, Antal Berkes, Richard Collins (eds) Reassessing the Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (Edward Elgar, 2024). Available here.
- ‘The World Bank and Legal Studies’ in Antje Vetterlein and Tobias Schmidtke (eds) The Elgar Companion to the World Bank (Edward Elgar, 2024). Available here.
- ‘The Recognition of the Formal Equality of International Organizations by Means of an International Rule of Incorporation’ in Daniele Amoroso, Loris Marotti, Pierfrancesco Rossi, Andrea Spagnolo, Giovanni Zarra (eds.) ‘More equal than others? Perspectives on the Principle of Equality from International and EU Law’ (Asser Press, 2022) Available here.
- ‘Beyond the Either-Or Paradigm’ in S. Droubi and J. d’Aspremont (eds), International Organizations, Non-State Actors, and The Formation of Customary International Law, Melland Schill Perspectives on International Law (Manchester University Press, 2020). Available here. (Mentioned in the Bibliography of the International Court of Justice 2020-2022)
- ‘Courtspeak: A Method to Read the Argumentative Structure Employed by the International Court of Justice in its Judgments and Advisory Opinions’ in Armin von Bogdandy, Helene Ruiz Fabri, Ingo Venzke, André Nunes (eds), International Judicial Legitimacy. New Voices and Approaches (NOMOS Verlag, 2020) also published as iCourts Working Paper Series No. 113. Available here. (Mentioned in the Bibliography of the International Court of Justice 2020-2022)
- ‘The International Legal Responsibility of the OSCE’ in Anne Peters, Mateja Platise and Carolyn Moser (ed), Revisiting the Legal Status of the OSCE (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Available here. Also published as Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2018-35. Available here.
- ‘Overlapping Responsibility: The Legal Relationship between the International Organization and the Host State’ in Andrea de Guttry, Micaela Frulli, Edoardo Greppi, Chiara Macchi (eds) The Duty of Care of International Organisations towards their Civilian Personnel Sent on Missions (T. M. C. Asser Press, 2018). Available here.
- ‘Responsible Rhetoric’, in Jan Klabbers, Maria Varaki and Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaca (ed) Towards Responsible Global Governance? An Exploration (University of Helsinki, 2018). Available here.
- ‘In difesa del Consiglio di Sicurezza: violazioni dei diritti umani e lotta al terrorismo’, in Andrea Spagnolo, Stefano Saluzzo (ed), La responsabilità degli Stati e delle organizzazioni internazionali: nuove fattispecie e problemi di attribuzione e di accertamento (Ledizioni 2017). Available here.
Dataset
- Corpus of Resolutions: UN Security Council (CR-UNSC) (with Sean Fobbe and Niccolò Ridi). Available here.
Book reviews
- ‘Fernando Lusa Bordin, The Analogy between States and International Organizations (Cambridge University Press 2018)’ 18 International Organizations Law Review (2021) 269. Available here.
- ‘Gerhard Ullrich. The Law of the International Civil Service Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2018. Pp 538. € 89,90. ISBN: 978-3-428-14914-8’ (2020) 31(2) European Journal of International Law 781. Available here.
- ‘Monika Heupel and Michael Zürn, Protecting the Individual from International Authority (Cambridge University Press, 2017)’ (2018) 15/1 International Organizations Law Review. Available here.
- ‘Nigel White, The Law of International Organisations (Manchester University Press, 3rd ed, 2016)’ (2017) 14/2 International Organizations Law Review. Available here.
Blogposts
- ‘Eurocentrism and Frontex Accountability for Human Rights Violations’. AdiM Blog, July 2024. Available here.
- ‘Victims of Informal Institutions: The Status of National Personnel of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG)’. EJIL:Talk!, 24 October 2023. Available here.
- ‘‘Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better’: The International Law Commission is back on International Organizations’. EJIL:Talk!, 28 June 2023. Available here.
- ‘The Participation in the Security Council of an ‘Aggressor’ Permanent Member: What About Good Faith?’, Opinio Juris, 17 March 2022. Available here.
- The International Law Commission as a sui generis organ? A call for self-reflection, Völkerrechtsblog, 24 February 2021. Available here.
- The Failure to Pursue the Mandates of International Organizations in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, EJIL:Talk! 27 May 2020. Available here.
- The Use of the ‘Proxy Argument’ in the Al-Bashir Case–A Riddle for the Law of International Organizations, Opinio Juris, 6 July 2019. Available here.
- Regime Interactions and the Dual Legality of EU Law: The case of Slovak Republic v. Achmea, The Global, Global Governance Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, 26 April 2018. Available here.
Courses
Teaching at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Honor students
‘Decolonising international law’ (module convener, 20h) 22/23 - 25/26
‘Protecting Individuals from International Organizations’ (module convener, 20h) 24/25
‘Territoriality in International Law’ (module convener, 20h) 23/24
The United Nations System (module convener, 10h) 23/24 - 24/25
Master students
‘Introduction to International Law and International Human Rights Law’ (shared module, 9h) 22/23 - 23/24 - 24/25 - 25/26
‘International Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Operations’ (shared module, 9h) 22/23 - 23/24 - 24/25 - 25/26 2025-2026
PhD Programme
‘The Sources of International Law’ (module convener, 10h) 23/24-24/25-25/26
‘International Law Methodology’ (shared module, 5h) 22/23 - 23/24
Project Rule of Law and Judicial Cooperation in Africa
‘La protection des victimes du terrorisme’ (module convener, 8h), Académie Internationale de Lutte Contre le Terrorisme (AILCT), Côte d’Ivoire 23/24 - 24/25
‘Coopération judiciaire internationale avec un focus sur les crimes internationaux’ (module convener, 8h) N’Djamena, Workshop for magistrates from Ciad 24/25
‘Coopération judiciaire internationale’ (module convener, 8h) N’Djamena, Workshop for magistrates from Ciad 24/25
‘International Judicial Cooperation’ (module convener, 8h) Dar es Salaam, Workshop for magistrates from Tanzania 24/25
‘International Judicial Cooperation with a focus on human trafficking’ Dar es Salaam, Workshop for magistrates from Tanzania 24/25
‘International Judicial Cooperation – focus on Extradition’ (module convener, 8h) Libreville, Workshop for magistrates from Gabon 24/25