Research

Research conducted at the HSE School of International Law approaches international law from the standpoint of politics, ontology, and international legal methodology. Researchers engage in rigorous analysis of international legal norms and institutions; the practices of international courts, tribunals, and arbitrations; international organization decisions; and the ways in which states apply international law. A particular area of focus is the relationship between international and national law: how is international law implemented and enforced domestically, and to what extent is it followed?

The School's staff trains Ph.D. students and Doctor of sciences candidates by mentoring them in their research and serving on dissertation councils. The School’s faculty members are highly active scholars in their fields who publish in competitive journals, serve on the editorial boards of Russian and foreign academic journals, and participate in top professional associations (ILA, ESIL, Law Schools Global League, etc.).

Two Research and Study Laboratories successfully operate in the structure of the School: the Laboratory on the protection of state interests in the context of economic sanctions led by Professor Daria Boklan, and the Laboratory of International Justice led by Associate Professor Vladislav Starzhenetsky. In 2020, the Research and study group International Law in the Digital Age worked under the leadership of Professor Vera Rusinova. In 2022-23, the School carried out a projectunder the lead of Ekaterina Martynova «From Science Fiction to Legal Research: Responsibility of States in Cyberspace», curated by Vera Rusinova. In 2023 a new Project Group «Eurasian Integration: a Legal Dimension» has started its activity.

The School conducts a regular research seminar called HSE Research Seminar on International Law and organizes international conferences, round tables, and seminars.
Noteworthy events organized by our team include the following international conferences:

• "International, National and Corporate Dimension of the ESG-agenda: Does Climate Change Law?" (2023);
• «Trends and Prospects of Development of Compliance and Prevention of Legal Risks» (2022);
• «Politics of Sanctions in International Relations: Between Rule of Law and Соercion» (2021), dedicated to the memory of Professor Igor Lukashuk;
• «International Justice: Looking into the Future» (2021); 
• «Perspectives and Problems of Development of the Eurasian Economic Union: a Legal Dimension» (2021); 
• "The 3R Initiative: Re-thinking, Re-packaging and Rescuing World Trade Law"’ (2020);
• "Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property: Emergence of New International Customary Law Rules – By whom?"’ (2019);
• "International Law in Times of Trade Wars and Global Environmental Problems: Protection or Protectionism?" (2019);
• "The European Court of Human Rights in East-West Relations: Norms, Values, and Legal Politics" (2018).

Staff members of the School are regular participants of the Saint-Petersburg International Legal Forum. In 2022 they took part in the arrangement of the sessions on «International Public Law in the Cyber Age: New Norms, Actors, and Approaches» (Vera Rusinova, Ekaterina Martynova, Alexey Petrenko, Sergey Sushkov), and «Balancing of Public and Private Interests in the Context of Mutial Restrictive Measures» (Vladislav Starzhenetsky). In 2021 they organized a session «International Courts in the Quest for Effectiveness» (Daria Boklan, Vladislav Starzhenetsky and Vera Rusinova).

In 2020, the School has launched a series of research seminars called the «HSE Research Seminar on International Law». Each seminar, which is conducted virtually, features an invited leading international researcher or practicing professional. Among the spekers of the Seminar were: M.-E. O'Connell (University of Notre Dame), C. Kress (University of Cologne), G. Ulfstein (University of Oslo), T. Ruys (University of Ghent), А. van Aaken (University of Hamburg), А. Jourbin-Bret (Secretary of the UNCITRAL), D. Lefkovitz (University of Richmond), Ch. Rendaelli (Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian law and Human Rights), and also P. Mavroidis (University of Columbia).

The team of the School is known for its high results in academic publishing. In 2022, Daria Boklan got a Faculty prize as the «Leader of publishing activity» and Yury Rovnov got a prize as the «Best researcher». The same year, Vera Rusinova and Matvey Tarasov were distinguished as the Laureats of the HSE University Best Russian Research Paper Competition for the article «“If stars are lit, it means — there is someone who needs it”: a new human rights protecting function of bilateral investment treaties».

Several books written by professors of the School were published by the leading international publishing houses. In 2022, a collective monograph «Sovereign Immunity Under Pressure. Norms, Values and Interests», which was co-edited and co-authored by Vladislav Starzhenetsky and Vera Rusinova together with Regis Bismuth (SciencePo) and Geir Ulfstein (PluriCourts, University of Oslo), was published by Springer. This book is written by a unique team of authors, representing the main legal systems of the world. Another collective monograph titled «Rethinking, Repackaging, and Rescuing World Trade Law in the Post-Pandemic Era» , co-authored and co-edited by Daria Boklan together with Amrita Bahri and Weihuan Zhou was published in 2021 by Hart Publishing.

Students' research papers written under the supervision of professors take prize places in the HSE Competition of students’ research papers. Papers of Valeria Matorina, Anastasia Fomenko and Tatyana Zelenovskaia and of Оleg Kondrashov took the 3rd place in 2022 and 2020 (supervisor – Vera Rusinova). Аygul Shaykhutdinova (supervisor – Maria Filatova), Мaria Bocharova, Sergey Korotkov and Vadim Absalyamov (supervisor – Vera Rusinova) became Laureats of this Competition in 2020, 2021 and 2022.