Marieke de Hoon

Marieke is on sabbatical from VU University (Amsterdam), Faculty of Law, where she teaches Public International Law. Her research profile combines international criminal law, human rights law, use of force and aggression. Marieke is currently finishing her PhD on the regulation and criminalization of the notion of aggressive war. Her research analyzes the normative foundations of the crime of aggression and the argumentation that is invoked to argue for the legality and legitimacy of use of force, or, instead, for its aggressiveness. The book analyzes the construction of the crime of aggression through its diplomatic negotiation history as well as through the invocation of the notion of aggression. Moreover, her research explores the consequences of legalizing aggression and of including it in the international criminal law framework, both for the development of international criminal law and human rights law, (future) adjudication in the International Criminal Court, and the politics that is generated by the regulation and criminalization of aggression.

In addition to her academic work, Marieke is Senior Counsel at the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) and Co-Director of PILPG’s Netherlands Office, where she provides legal assistance to governments, opposition or civil society organizations in (post-) conflict situations. These include peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, rule of law development and transitional justice, and human rights redress. Recent examples include assisting the Government of Indonesia on human rights and gender mainstreaming research projects, assisting the Syrian Opposition Coalition during the Geneva Peace talks, co-drafting an Amicus Curiae brief to the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR in Janowiec and Others v. Russia (2013) and serving on South Sudan’s legal team in the 2008/2009 Abyei arbitration before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and assisting the Nagas in their peace negotiations with the Government of India.

Marieke obtained her law degree (LL.B. cum laude) at Utrecht University’s honorary program Utrecht Law College, and her Master’s degree (LL.M. cum laude) at Utrecht University’s two-year Master’s Programme in Legal Research, with a specialization in Public International Law and International Criminal Law.