Brussels Staff Profiles

Yutaka Arai did his undergraduate study in Law and then obtained his LLM at University of Keio in 1993. During that time, he studied international relations at Brown University. He then moved to England and studied for his PhD at University of Cambridge. When employed at University of Kent at Canterbury and Brussels, his PhD was published as “The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine and the Principle of Proportionality in the Jurisprudence of the ECHR” in 2002 (Antwerp/Oxford: Intersentia/Hart). This was followed by another monograph “The Law of Occupation – Interplay between International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law” in 2009 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).

Yutaka has contributed a theoretical chapter to Ulfstein et al. (eds), European Court of Human Rights in a National, European and Global Context (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011). He has also published several papers on international humanitarian law, including two chapters in: Clapham, A., Gaeta, P. and Sassòli, M. eds. The 1949 Geneva Conventions: A Commentary (OUP), and ‘A Battle over Elasticity – Interpreting the Concept of ‘Concrete and Direct Military Advantage Anticipated’ under International Humanitarian Law’ in: Haeck, Y. et al. eds. The Realization of Human Rights: When Theory Meets Practice (Intersentia); and ‘Excessive Collateral Civilian Casualties and Military Necessity: Awkward Crossroads in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) between State Responsibility and Individual Criminal Liability’. in: Chinkin, C. and Baetens, F. eds. Sovereignty, Statehood and State Responsibility: Essays in Honour of James Crawford. CUP, pp. 325-339.

He also contributed chapters to two of the most leading textbooks of the European Convention on Human Rights, P. Van Dijk and F. Van Hoof, The Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights, 4th ed., (Intersentia/Hart, 2006); and D.J. Harris, M. O’Boyle, C. Warbrick, E. Bate, C.M. Buckley (eds), Law of the European Convention on Human Rights, 2nd ed., (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009).

Yutaka has been publishing articles in journals on international law, human rights law, European law, and comparative public law, including the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law; and Yearbook of European Law. He was a visiting research fellow at the Max-Planck Institute of International Law, Heidelberg, and at the University of Geneva. He is now undertaking research for the purpose of writing a book on the drafting records of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 while contributing a theoretical chapter to Ulfstein et al. (eds), European Court of Human Rights in a National, European and Global Context (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011).

Research

Yutaka’s research interests include:
• International Humanitarian Law
• International Human Rights Law
• International Criminal Law
• European Human Rights Law (especially European Convention on Human Rights)
• Theories of Public International Law

PhD Supervision

International humanitarian law; Still, I may supervise PhD candidates dealing with international criminal law.

Yutaka’s working languages are English, French and Japanese, and he enjoys reading knowledge of Spanish, Italian and Chinese. He has been publishing articles in journals on international law, human rights law, European law, and comparative public law, including the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law; International Review of the Red Cross; Yearbook of European Law. He was a visiting research fellow at the Max-Planck Institute of International Law, Heidelberg, and at the University of Geneva. He also wrote some theoretical essays based on aspects of legal philosophy and jurisprudence, including “The margin of appreciation doctrine: a theoretical analysis of Strasbourg’s variable geometry” Andreas Føllesdal,  Birgit Peters and Geir Ulfstein (eds), European Court of Human Rights in a National, European and International Context (Cambridge Univ. Press,2013), pp. 62-105; and “Proportionality”, in:  Dinah Shelton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law, (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013). He is now undertaking research for the purpose of writing a book on the drafting records of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

Dr. Harm Schepel is Professor of Economic Law and Director of Law Programs at BSIS. He holds degrees from the University of Amsterdam (Drs.), the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati (LLM), and the EUI Florence (PhD), and was attached to the Centre for European Law and Politics in Bremen and the Centre de Théorie Politique at the ULB before joining Kent Law School in 2000.  He has held visiting research positions at the University of Amsterdam and Columbia Law School, and has taught at the Academy of European Law at the EUI Florence, on the LLM in Law in a European and Global context at the Catholic University of Portugal, on the Executive Master’s in European Studies (MEUS) at the ULB, and on the Research Master’s in European Studies at the University of Maastricht. He is a regular visiting lecturer at the Universities of Palermo and Torino.  He sits on the Board of editors of the European Law Journal.

Elise Féron is a senior lecturer in International Conflict Analysis at the Brussels School of International Studies (University of Kent) where she convenes the International Conflict and Security Master Programme. She is a researcher at the Conflict Analysis Research Center (CARC, University of Kent).  She is also associated researcher and invited professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the Diplomatic Academy of Armenia, the Université Nationale du Burundi, and the Université Lumière de Bujumbura (Burundi) where she is the co-director of the Gender Studies Master Programme.

Office Hours: Mondays 14:00-16:00 except week 11 when they will be held Friday 12 December 12.00 to 14.00  or by appointment.

Dr Tugba Basaran is lecturer at the School of Politics and International Relations. She has studied at the University of Cambridge (PhD), Free University of Berlin (MA) and spent a research year at Sciences Po, Paris (Visiting Fellow).  She is member of the editorial team for the journals International Political Sociology and Cultures & Conflicts. Apart from her academic work, Dr Basaran has ten years of professional experience in international cooperation and development. She has worked for international organizations, research institutes and as international project manager in Latin America and the Caribbean, South-East Europe and Asia. She continues to be civilian personnel for peace operations and elections and is a regularly invited expert on issues related to security, development and borders.

Office Hours: Appointment by email

Dr. Azmanova is Reader (Associate Professor) of Political and Social Thought. She teaches courses in democratic theory and political economy. Her writing is dedicated to bringing the critique of political economy (back) into critical social theory. Her research ranges from democratic transition and consolidation to the dynamics of contemporary capitalism and its effect on ideological orientation and electoral mobilisation. Among her recent publications are The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment (Columbia University Press, 2012), Reclaiming Democracy: Judgment, Responsibility and the Right to Politics, ed. with Mihaela Mihai (Routhledge, 2015); “The Right to Politics”, Philosophy and Social Criticism 42 (2016), and “Empowerment as Surrender: how women lost the battle for emancipation as they won equality and inclusion,’’  in Social Research 83/3 (Fall 2016). She is currently working on a book manuscript titled The Crisis of ‘the Crisis of Capitalism’ tracing the mutation of neoliberal capitalism into a novel modality.

After having taken active participation in the dissident movements that brought down the communist regime in her native Bulgaria in 1987-1990, she studied European Law at the University of Strasbourg, did her doctoral studies at the New School for Social Research in New York, and taught political theory at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po.) in Paris, before joining the BSIS in 2005, where she directs the programmes International Political Economy and Political Strategy and Communication. She has been working as a policy advisor to a number of international institutions such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and Transparency International.

Student contact hours:
Wednesday 11:00-12:00 and by appointment