Patryk I. Labuda

Dr. Labuda works at the intersection of international law, peace and security studies, and global history. 

Trained in law and history at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), Dr. Labuda earned his PhD from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He has held positions at the Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Zurich, University of Amsterdam, New York University School of Law, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Before his academic career, Dr. Labuda worked full-time for the European Union's security missions in DR Congo and Libya, a rule-of-law think tank in Sudan and South Sudan, and an NGO in Brussels.

Dr. Labuda has two main areas of expertise:

1) the impact of global governance actors, in particular international courts and UN peace operations, on domestic law and politics, especially in central Africa;

2) global legal ordering through a post-colonial Global South-East(ern European) lens, currently double standards in international law and Second World approaches to international law (SWAIL).

He has published on various doctrinal legal debates, ranging from the UN Security Council’s Chapter VII powers to complementarity and immunities at the International Criminal Court.

Drawing on over a decade of work and research experience in Africa - with a regional focus on the law, politics and history of the DR Congo, Central African Republic, and the Sudans - Dr. Labuda now supports justice initiatives and dialogue between the Global South(s) and Global East(s).

Consisting of over 30 long-form publications and 50 shorter pieces, Dr. Labuda's scholarship includes an award-winning book with Oxford University Press (2024 ABILA Best Book for a First-Time Author) and an award-winning article in the Yale Journal of International Law (2025 ASIL International Criminal Law Scholarship Prize). His work has also featured in prestigious journals like the Leiden Journal of International Law, Global Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Law, Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, and leading academic presses (see here). 

Dr. Labuda is a regular contributor to mainstream and social media (see here). In 2024, he was elected to a 4 year term on the Board of the European Society of International Law.

Recent publications: 

• 'From Genocide to Colonialism: Memory Wars at the United Nations after the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine’, in: Global Studies Quarterly (2025), _____ (in press) 

• ‘Countering Imperialism in International Law: Examining the Special Tribunal for Aggression against Ukraine through a Post-Colonial Eastern European Lens’, in: 49 (2) Yale Journal of International Law (2024), 271-310

  *** 2025 American Society of International Law 'International Criminal Law Scholarship Prize'

• 'International Law after the Russo-Ukrainian War: From the Zeitenwende to Multipolarity', in: 27 Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (2024), 587-620

• 'International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability. In the Court’s Shadow’, Oxford University Press (2023)

  *** 2024 American Branch International Law Association 'Best Book Award for a First-time Author'

• ‘Beyond Rhetoric: Interrogating the Eurocentric Critique of International Criminal Law’s Selectivity in the Wake of the 2022 Ukraine Invasion’, in: 36 (4) Leiden Journal of International Law (2023), 1095-1116
• 'When May UN Peacekeepers Use Lethal Force to Protect Civilians? Reconciling Threats, Imminence and the Right to Life’, in: 28 (1) Journal of Conflict and Security Law (2022) 1-65 (with Hanna Bourgeois)
• ‘With or Against the State? Reconciling the Protection of Civilians and Host State Support in UN Peacekeeping’, International Peace Institute, May 2020