International Law
The International Law Group comprises researchers in the fields of EU law, ocean law and international law. Several international law researchers are also affiliated to the multi-disciplinary research community CERGU (Centre for European Research at the University of Gothenburg).
The international Law Group actively strives to create an inclusive research environment where both researchers and postgraduate students in the field of international law are involved. A part of this work consists of arranging seminars with affiliated and external researchers, as well as joint seminars with other research groups at the Department of Law.
The International Law Group has strong networking ties to the international law environments at the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the Free University of Amsterdam, the University of Kent and Turku University. There are also long-standing network collaborations with EUI Florence and with Columbia University, in particular its Centre for Sustainable Investment Law.
International Law Group’s Seminar
Head of State Immunity before the International Criminal Court
Date: 12 November 2025
Time: 13:15-15:00 CET
Venue: Fyren (C4) School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg
Speaker: Professor Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen
This seminar examines the different legal positions regarding head of state immunity before international criminal courts, particularly the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Do international criminal courts – particularly the ICC – have a legal basis to override the personal immunity accruing to incumbent Heads of State? Leading judgments on this issue from the ICJ and the ICC point to different conclusions. This places ICC Member States in a difficult legal dilemma, which has become highly relevant due to the arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen will present her recent report, which maps the legal developments regarding personal immunity, including the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (STCAU), and analyzes the dominant arguments for why immunity no longer applies before the ICC.
You can read the report (in Danish) here: Head of State Immunity before the International Criminal Court (ICC) – University of Copenhagen
About the speaker:
Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen is Professor of international law at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, and Editor-in-Chief of the Nordic Journal of International Law. Her publications include two monographs – The Immunity of State Representatives (Thomson, 2005) and The International Legal Personality of the Individual (Oxford University Press, 2018) – and two edited volumes entitled Nordic Approaches to International law (BRILL, 2017) and International Law in Cyberspace – The Nordic Perspective (BRILL, 2025)