Connect
About
Christine Chinkin, FBA is Emerita Professor of International Law, Professorial Research Fellow and Founding Director of the Centre of Women Peace & Security at LSE. She is a barrister, a member of Matrix Chambers. Together with H. Charlesworth, she won the American Society of International Law, 2005 Goler T. Butcher Medal 'for outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights law'. She is a William C Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School. She has held visiting appouintments in Australia, the United States, Singapore and the People’s Republic of China. She is currently a member of the Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Panel and was Scientific Advisor to the Council of Europe’s Committee for the drafting of the Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.
Gender, Minorities and Indigenous Peoples (Minorities Rights Group, 2004) 36pp (translated into at least eight languages) (with F. Banda)
Peace Agreements as a Means for Promoting Gender Equality and Ensuring Participation of Women (UN Doc. EGM/PEACE/2003/BP.1)
Research
Research Interests
Current research interests are gender and post-conflict reconstruction; the political and legal aspects of human security; and the application of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979 by CEDAW and by the UK government.
I am currently a member of the Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Panel, constituted by UNMIK, and in that connection also carry out research on the application of human rights standards by United Nations' missions.
Publications
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women : A Commentary (M. Freeman, C. Chinkin and B. Rudolf, eds) (Oxford, OUP, 2012), author of pp 101-122; 443-474; co-author of 1-50.
This volume is the first comprehensive commentary on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol. The Convention is a key international human rights instrument and the only one exclusively addressed to women. It has been described as the United Nations' 'landmark treaty in the struggle for women's rights'.
click here for publisher's site
The Making of International Law (with A. Boyle) (Oxford University Press, Foundations of Public International Law, 2007), 338pp.
This is a study of the principal negotiating processes and law-making tools through which contemporary international law is made. It does not seek to give an account of the traditional - and untraditional - sources and theories of international law, but rather to identify the processes, participants and instruments employed in the making of international law. It accordingly examines some of the mechanisms and procedures whereby new rules of law are created or old rules are amended or abrogated. It concentrates on the UN, other international organisations, diplomatic conferences, codification bodies, NGOs, and courts.
Every society perceives the need to differentiate between its legal norms and other norms controlling social, economic and political behaviour. But unlike domestic legal systems where this distinction is typically determined by constitutional provisions, the decentralised nature of the international legal system makes this a complex and contested issue. Moreover, contemporary international law is often the product of a subtle and evolving interplay of law-making instruments, both binding and non-binding, and of customary law and general principles. Only in this broader context can the significance of so-called 'soft law' and multilateral treaties be fully appreciated.
An important question posed by any examination of international law-making structures is the extent to which we can or should make judgments about their legitimacy and coherence, and if so in what terms. Put simply, a law-making process perceived to be illegitimate or incoherent is more likely to be an ineffective process. From this perspective, the assumption of law-making power by the UN Security Council offers unique advantages of speed and universality, but it also poses a particular challenge to the development of a more open and participatory process observable in other international law-making bodies.
click here for publisher's site
Dispute Resolution in Australia (with H. Astor) (Butterworths 2nd edition Butterworths, 2002), 462 pp
A critical treatment of processes of alternative dispute resolution currently adopted within Australia. Dispute resolution methods (in particular those adopted in commercial, family, discrimination and international disputes) are considered in a theoretical and evaluative light.
The Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis (with H. Charlesworth), (Manchester University Press, 2000), 414pp. (Translated into Japanese, 2004)
Halsbury's Laws of Australia, Volume 14 : Foreign Relations paras 215-5 – 215-110; (Butterworths: Sydney, 1994; 2nd edition 2001)
Third Parties in International Law (Oxford University Press, Monograph Series in International Law, 1993), 385pp.
- 'Final Report of the Human Rights Advisory Panel' Criminal Law Forum (2017) 28 (1) pp.77-97 (with M.Nowicki, F.Tulkens)
- 'Exposing the Gendered Myth of Post Conflict Transition:The Transformative Power of Economic and Social Rights' New York University journal of international law & politics 48 (4) (2016) pp.1211-1226 (with Madeleine Rees)
- ‘Addressing Violence against Women in the Commonwealth within States’ Obligations under International Law’ 40 Commonwealth Law Bulletin (2014) pp.471-501 (This was a paper written for the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting, May 2014).
- 'Gender and New Wars' Journal of International Affairs, 67 (1) (2013) pp.167-190 (with Mary Kaldor)
- ‘International Dispute Resolution with Particular Attention to China’ in Collected Courses of the Xiamen Academy of International Law, vol 4 (2011) 211-307 (Martinus Nijhoff, 2013).
- Accesso a la Justicia, Género y Derechos Humanos’ in Violencia de Género Estragia de litigio para la defense de los derechos de las mujeres, (2010, Ministerio Publico de la Defensa, Buenos Aires) 17-49.
- C. Chinkin and I. Rangelov, 'A Bottom-Up Approach to Redressing past Violations of Human Rights', in D Kostovicova and M Glasius (eds) Bottom-Up Politics: An Agency Approach to Globalization (Palgrave, 2011) 112 – 126.
- 'The UK CEDAW story.' European Human Rights Law Review 2011, 3, 274-293.
- 'International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights and the UK Courts’, in L. Boisson de Chazournes and M. Kohen, International law and the Quest for its Implementation (Martinus Nijhoff, 2010) 243
- 'Panel Discussion: Has International Law Civilized Conflicts since 1907?' (Chinkin, C.; Tomuschat, C.; Ronzitti, N.) Veroffentlichungen - Walther Schucking Instituts Fur Internationales Recht An Der Universitat Kiel Vol. 173 (2009) pp. 509-520
- 'An International Law Framework with Respect to International Peace and Security' in Marlies Glasius and Mary Kaldor, A Human Security Doctrine for Europe (Routledge 2006) 173-199.
- 'Feminist Approaches to International Law: Reflections from Another Century', in Doris Buss and Ambreena Manji (eds), International Law Modern Feminist Approaches (Hart Publishing, 2005) 17-47 (with H. Charlesworth and S. Wright).
- 'Post Conflict Reconstruction and Rehabilitation', in Radhika Coomaraswamy and Dilrukshi Fonseka (eds), Peace Work (Women Unlimited/ICES, 2004) 208-37.
- 'Regulatory Frameworks in International Law', in Christine Parker, Colin Scott, Nicola Lacey and John Braithewaite (eds), Regulating Law (Oxford University Press, 2004) 246-268 (with H. Charlesworth)
- 'Feminist Reflections on International Criminal Law', in Andreas Zimmermann (ed.), International Criminal Law and the Current Development of Public International Law (Duncker and Humblot, 2002) 125-60.
- 'The United Nations Decade for the Elimination of Poverty: What Role for International Law?' 54 Current Legal Problems, 553-589 (2001)
Gender, Minorities and Indigenous Peoples (Minorities Rights Group, 2004) 36pp (translated into at least eight languages) (with F. Banda)
Peace Agreements as a Means for Promoting Gender Equality and Ensuring Participation of Women (UN Doc. EGM/PEACE/2003/BP.1)
Teaching
Engagement and impact
External Activities
- Law Editor, Encyclopaedia of Globalization
- Editor, American Journal of International Law
- Advisory Board, Leiden Journal of International Law; European Journal of International Law; British Yearbook of International Law
- Director of Studies, International Law Association, 2004 onwards
- Member External Gender Forum, Asian Development Bank 2002-3
- Expert Consultant, Stop Violence against Women, Amnesty International, 2005
- UN Division for the Advancement of Women Expert Consultant on 'Peace Agreements and Gender' (prepared background paper for an Expert Group Meeting, UN Doc. EGM/PEACE/2003/BP.1, available website of the Division), 2003 (see Reports/Discussion papers,above, for link)
- Consultant, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Peru, Gender and Torture, 2002-3.
- UN Division for the Advancement of Women, Expert Consultant on Secretary-General's study on Violence against Women 2005.
- UN Office High Commissioner of Human Rights, consultant on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, 2002;
- OSCE and OHCHR, 2005, consultant on Trafficking against Women.
- UNDP, consultant on Gender Mainstreaming and CEDAW Reporting, 2005.
- Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, August 2004, collaborative project on Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Africa
- Member of the UN Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission to Gaza established under resolution S-9/1 of the Council
- Member of the International Human Rights Advisory Panel in Kosovo
- Scientific expert to the Council of Europe Ad Hoc Committee on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence which has a mandate to prepare one or more legally binding instrument(s), as appropriate,1 to prevent and combat: domestic violence including specific forms of violence against women; other forms of violence against women; to protect and support the victims of such violence and prosecute the perpetrators
- Member of the Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Panel, appointed 2010