Philipp Kastner is an Assistant Professor in International Law at the Faculty of Law of The University of Western Australia.

Philipp researches and teaches in the areas of the resolution of armed conflicts and transitional justice, international criminal law, public international law, the law of the sea, international human rights and humanitarian law, and legal pluralism. The title of his PhD thesis is: ‘Law – Rest in Peace? Legal Normativity in the Resolution of Internal Armed Conflict’. His main current research project relates to the legitimacy and effectiveness of transitional justice mechanisms, such as international and national courts, truth and reconciliation commissions and reparation schemes, and the emergence of transnational legal norms in this context.

Philipp holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in law from McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada (LL.M. and D.C.L.) and the University of Innsbruck, Austria (Mag. iur. and Dr. iur.). He is fluent in German, English and French. 

His recent publications include the books International Criminal Justice in bello? The ICC between Law and Politics in Darfur and Northern Uganda (Martinus Nijhoff, 2012) and Legal Normativity in the Resolution of Internal Armed Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Experience

Before joining The University of Western Australia, Philipp was the Executive Director of the McGill International Criminal Justice Clinic and a Teaching Fellow at McGill University. As part of his professional experiences with international organisations and non-governmental organisations, he was involved in running the first sessions of the Universal Periodic Review within the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and in reporting on the sixth session of the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court for Human Rights Watch in New York.