Profile

International law's past, present, and future influence each other (see interviews with Janne Nijman here and here). Nijman ’s research takes a broad, ‘history and theory’-based approach to international law and deals with questions of international law in a way that integrates issues of international law, politics, and morality or justice. She is Professor of ‘History and Theory of International Law’ at the University of Amsterdam School of Law, and senior fellow of the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL). Nijman is also Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. She is the former Chairperson of the Executive Board of the T.M.C. Asser Instituut for International and European Law in The Hague, and its academic director (2015-2022). 

Janne Nijman is interested in bringing scholarly work and insights to bear on contemporary international law and (foreign) policy issues. She has published widely on issues of international law, human rights, and beyond. She is in executive and non-executive board positions in the Dutch public sector for over 15 years. Currently, Nijman is a member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), an independent body that advises the Dutch government and parliament on foreign policy (2023-), and member of the Supervisory Board /Board of Trustees of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2023-). Janne is chair of the Supervisory Board of the World Press Photo Foundation. Nijman is a member of SER Topvrouwen.

Research interests

While keeping a broad research interest in international law, her research in the area of the history and theory of international law is currently focused on the project of 'Dutch Empire and International Law'. Together with Prof. Randall Lesaffer, she edited The Cambridge Companion to Hugo Grotius (CUP, 2021). She co-organised research seminars in Amsterdam, Hong-Kong, and Beijing for the work on Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: Chinese and European Early Modern Origins of a rule of law as justice for world order (OUP, 2018), edited together with Prof. Anthony Carty. In an engagement with contemporary history issues of international law and politics, she co-edited the 2018 vol. NYIL on Populism and International Law, together with Wouter Werner (VU Amsterdam), in which they also wrote on the topic.

Currently, as a second distinct interest, Nijman pursues a research project on 'Cities and International Law', which examines critically the urbanisation of the international society, international law and international organisations. On this topic, she published the Research Handbook on International Law and Cities (Edward Elgar, 2021 Hb, 2022 Pb) co-edited with Prof. Helmut Aust (FU Berlin), which has been awarded the ESIL Collaborative book prize 2022. They also co-chair together the ILA Committee on Urbanisation and International Law - Potential & Pitfalls (2024-2028). The Committee builds on the work of the ILA Study Group on 'The Role of Cities in International law', which they chaired from 2018-2023. Nijman has been PI of the research project ‘The Global City: Challenges, Trust and the Role of (International) Law (2016-2021)’ hosted at the Asser Institute. The project includes four individual PhD projects supported by the Gieskes Strijbis Foundation. One of the other outcomes of this project was the publication of Urban Politics of Human Rights, together with Barbara Oomen, Elif Durmus, Sara Miellet, and Lisa Roodenburg (Eds), (Routledge, 2022). 

She is an Advisory Editor of the London review of International Law. 

Academic Experience

Janne Nijman studied law at the University of Leiden (LLB and Master of Law [Meester in de Rechten, mr] 1996) and the Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg. She defended her doctoral thesis in public international law at Leiden University in 2004. She joined the University of Amsterdam School of Law in late 2004 as a post-doc researcher in the ACIL NWO Pioneer Project ‘The Divide and Interaction between National law and International Law' (2004-2005). Subsequently, she was an assistant and associate professor, before she was appointed full professor in January 2015. From 2007-2014, she has been Dean to the Law Faculty's PhD Candidates.

Nijman held visiting research fellowships at various places. She has been a Global Research Fellow of New York University School of Law (2003-2004), affiliated with the History and Theory of International Law Programme of the Institute for International Law and Justice; an Early Career Visiting Fellow at Queen Mary College School of Law, University of London (Summer 2006), and a Visiting Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Institute for Policy Research (Spring term 2012).  For the academic year 2017-2018, she held a visiting professorship at The Graduate Institute in Geneva. During Michaelmas Term 2022-2023, Professor Nijman has been a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Center for International Law and Jesus College in Cambridge (UK). In 2023-2024, Janne has been visiting fellow at the Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe ‘The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?’ at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

Janne has been an editor on the board of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law (2011-2022) and the Grotiana journal (2005-2022). She has been a Board Member of the Grotiana Foundation (2005-2022), the Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Internationaal Recht (KNVIR, the Dutch branch of the International Law Association) (2007-2022), and a member of the Steering Committee of the Netherlands Network of Human Rights Research (NNHRR) (2017-2022).

Ancillary activities (selection)

Janne Nijman has been a member of the Supervisory Board of peace organisation PAX for Peace for five years (2018-2023). Nijman was a member of the international Jury of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Peace Prize 2021-2023. She has been chair and member of the Supervisory Board of the think-tank International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) (2020-2022), The Hague. Nijman has been an International Gender Champion, an international leadership network on gender equality with a hub in The Hague (2018-2022). Until January 2021, she has been chair and member of the board of the Vera Gottschalk-Frank Foundation and in that capacity member of the Selection and Evaluation Committee of the Arminius Fellowship at the Scaliger Institute (Leiden University). She has been member and president of the Executive Board of Oikos, an NGO focused on fair and sustainable globalisation, and member of the Supervisory Board of Spark, which develops higher education and entrepreneurship so that young ambitious people are empowered to lead their post-conflict societies into prosperity. Janne has been a Research Advisor on Global Justice and later also Board Member of The Broker, an online platform that aims to 'bridge the gap' between academics and development policy makers, from 2010-2019.

Media

Nijman has published op-eds in a number of Dutch newspapers: Eindhovens Dagblad, Het Parool, Nederlands Dagblad, Trouw, NRC Handelsblad, Het Financieel Dagblad, and Volkskrant. She holds an alternating column with Herman van Rompuy in the magazine CDV: 'Wederkerigheid' (2019-4), 'Identiteit' (2020-2), 'Waarden en Europa' (2020-4), 'Het bonum commune’ (2021-2), 'Rentmeesterschap’ (2021-4), 'Vernedering' (2022-2), 'Grenzen aan het Gras' (2022-4), 'Stop ons Verzet' (2023-2), 'Ressentiment' (2023-4), and 'Plastic de Stad uit' (2024-2).

General Research Interests

Janne Nijman is currently working on a range of research topics, including :

• International law and politics
• Human Rights
• Critical international legal history
• Cities and international law and governance

Key publications

Monograph & edited volumes :

• Urban Politics of Human Rights, together with Barbara Oomen, Elif Durmu, Sara Miellet, and Lisa Roodenburg (Eds), (Routledge, November 2022) 
• Research Handbook on International Law and Cities, together with Helmut Aust (Eds), (Elgar, 2021) (Pb ed, 2022)
• The Cambridge Companion to Hugo Grotius, together with R. Lesaffer (Eds), (Cambridge University Press, Hb and Pb 2021)
• Populism and International Law, together with Wouter Werner (Eds.), vol. 2018 of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, (T.M.C. Asser Press/Springer, 2019).
• Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: Chinese and European origins of a rule of law as justice for world order, edited together with Anthony Carty (Oxford University Press, 2018).
• Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2012,  Legal Equality and the International Rule of Law. Essays in honour of Pieter H. Kooijmans, Volume editor with Wouter Werner, 2013.
• Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2011, Agora:  The Iraq Case: international law and politics, Volume editor with Ellen Hey, 2012.
• Special Issue Grotiana 2009, Mare Liberum 1609-2009, Volume editor with Gustaaf van Nifterik, Grotiana Vol. 30, Dec. 2009.
• Janne E Nijman & André Nollkaemper (Eds), New Perspectives on the Divide between National and International Law, OUP, 2007.
• The Concept of International Legal Personality: an inquiry into the history and theory of international law , T.M.C. Asser Press, 2004.

                           Reviewed inter alia in (see links below):

                           Review Essay by Anthony Carty in: 6 Melbourne JIL 2005, 534-552.

                           Book Review by Robert Kolb in 18 European JIL 2007, 775-776.

                                                                                    ***

Chapters and articles :

• 'The Urbanisation of International Law – A Post-Cold War History', in: Eyal Benvenisti/Dino Kritsiotis (Eds.), Cambridge History of International Law, Vol. XII, Cambridge (CUP) forthcoming, together with Helmut P. Aust.

• ‘Bertha von Suttner: Locating International Law in Novel and Salon’ in: Immi Tallgren (Ed), Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces (OUP, 2023) 20 pp. 

• 'International Law needs People': 'Opening Remarks' as Convener of the Closing Plenary: International Law Needs People: Humanitarian Arms Control and the Peace movement, in: Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting 2022, 116, 222-223. 

• ‘Europe as a geopolitical actor after the Post-Cold War era’, Foreword to: Brigid Laffan’s ‘Can Collective Power Europe emerge from Putin’s War?’, Seventh Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture (The Hague; Asser Press, August 2022) v-x.

• ‘The Grotian Myth and Dutch Modern Imperialism: Blind Spots in International Law Scholarship’ in the Online Symposium at Verfassungsblog: ‘Decolonization and Human Rights in the Kingdom of the Netherlands’, León Castellanos-Jankiewicz and Wiebe Hommes (Eds.), January 2022.

• ‘The Emerging Roles of Cities in International Law - Introductory Remarks on Practice, Scholarship and the Handbook’, together with Helmut P Aust, in: Aust, H.P. & Nijman, J.E. (eds.), Research Handbook on International Law and Cities (Elgar, 2021) 1-15.

• ‘Introduction’, together with Randall Lesaffer, in: Randall Lesaffer and Janne E. Nijman (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Grotius (CUP, 2021) 1-14.

• ‘Intelligence without a Conscience? A Plea for Regulation of the Digital World’, Foreword to: Andrew Murray’s ‘Almost Human: Law and Human Agency in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’, Sixth Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture (The Hague; Asser Press, August 2021) v-x.

• ‘Ius Gentium et Naturae: The Human Conscience and Early Modern International Law’, in: Slotte, P. & Haskell, J. (eds.), Christianity and International Law: An Introduction (‘Law and Christianity’ Series), (Cambridge University Press, 2021) 153-176.

• 'Planetary Boundaries intra muros: Cities and the Anthropocene', together with Helmut Aust, in Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé (eds.), Research Handbook on Law, Governance and Planetary Boundaries (Edward Elgar, 2021)

• ‘An Enlarged Sense of Possibility for International Law: Seeking Change by Doing History’, in Venzke, I. and K. Heller (eds.) ‘Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal Histories (OUP, 2021).

• ‘Marked Absences: Locating Gender and Race in International Legal History’, Volume 31 (3) European Journal of International Law (2020): 1025–1050. 

• ‘International Law and the Social Question: An Alternative Hague Tradition?’ Foreword to: A. Orford, International Law and the Social Question. Fifth Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture (The Hague; Asser Press, 2020) v-xiv.

• 'Grotius’ ‘Rule of Law’ and the Human Sense of Justice: An Afterword to Martti Koskenniemi’s Foreword', European Journal of International Law, Volume 30 (4), November 2019, Pages 1105–1114.

• 'The Urban Pushback: International Law as an Instrument of Cities', contribution to the panel 'Federalism strikes back: Is the one-voice doctrine  in decline?', 2019 ASIL Proceedings of the 113th Annual Meeting, CUP 2020, 119-123.
• 'Opening remarks and Questions' , Closing Plenary: International law as an Instrument for Development, 2019 ASIL Proceedings of the 113th Annual Meeting, CUP 2020, 390-392.
• 'Foreword' to Martti Koskenniemi's T.M.C. Asser Lecture 'International Law and the Far Right. Reflections on Law and Cynicism' 2018, in the Annual Asser Lecture Series ed. by J.E. Nijman, Asser Press 2019, v-x.
• 'Populism and International Law: what backlash and which Rubicon?', together with Wouter Werner, in JE Nijman & W Werner (Volume Eds.), Populism and International Law, Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2018, Asser Press – Springer (2019).
• 'Personality', in J d’Aspremont & S Singh (Eds), Concepts for International Law ‐ Contributions to Disciplinary Thought (London, E Elgar, 2019) with Catherine Brölmann.
• Seeking Change by Doing History (Amsterdam University Press, 2018), 25 pp.
• 'The Moral Responsibility of Rulers: Going back beyond the liberal rule of law for world order', together with Anthony Carty, in Anthony Carty and Janne Nijman (Eds.), Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: Chinese and European Early Modern Origins of a rule of law as justice for world order (OUP, 2018).
• 'A Universal Rule of Law for a Pluralist World Order: Leibniz's Universal Jurisprudence and His Praise of the Chinese Ruler' in Anthony Carty and Janne Nijman (Eds.), Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: Chinese and European Early Modern Origins of a rule of law as justice for world order (OUP, 2018).
• 'Grotius’ Imago Dei Anthropology: Grounding Ius Naturae et Gentium', in International law and Religion, edited by Martti Koskenniemi, Monica García-Salmones, and Paolo Amoroso (OUP, 2017).
• 'Mental Health and the Foreign Fighter Phenomenon: A Case Study from the Netherlands', together with C. Paulussen and K. Lismont, ICCT Report March 2017, 31 pp. (Peer reviewed)
• 'Renaissance of the City as Global Actor. The role of foreign policy and international law practices in the construction of cities as global actors', in The Transformation of Foreign Policy: Drawing and Managing Boundaries, ed. by Andreas Fahrmeir, Gunther Hellmann, and Miloš Vec (OUP, 2016) pp. 209-241.
• 'Images of Grotius, or the International Rule of Law beyond Historiographical Oscillation', 17 (1)  Journal of the History of International Law 2015, pp. 83-137.
• 'In Memoriam, Pieter Hendrik Kooijmans (1933–2013)',  Leiden Journal of International Law (2013), 26, pp. 1–3.
• 'In Memoriam: Pieter Hendrik Kooijmans (1933-2013)', in JE Nijman & WG Werner (Eds), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2012, Legal Equality and the International Rule of Law. Essays in honour of Pieter H. Kooijmans, Volume 43, 2013, pp. ix-x.
• 'Legal Equality and the International Rule of Law' together with Wouter Werner in JE Nijman & WG Werner (Eds), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2012, Legal Equality and the International Rule of Law. Essays in honour of Pieter H. Kooijmans, Volume 43, 2013, pp. 3-24.
• Human Inequality puts Sovereign Equality to the test,  The Broker, publication date March 27, 2013 (online article, 3360 words), available at:  http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Human-inequality-puts-sovereign-equality-to-the-test 

• 'Minorities and Majorities' in A Peters & B Fassbender (Eds.),  Oxford Handbook on the History of International law (OUP, 2012), pp. 95-119.
• 'After "Iraq": Back to the International Rule of Law? An Introduction to the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2011 Agora  "The Iraq Case: international law and politics"' (2012), pp. 71-94.
• 'Rechtstreekse werking verdragen goed voor Nederland' together with K. Brölmann, in Openbaar Bestuur Juni 2012 pp. 13-15.
• 'Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: early modern origins of a rule of law for world order", written together with Anthony Carty, published in Conference papers of the International Symposium " Reason of State and State of Reason in the Global Era: History and Present " (pp 414-424), held at the School of Law, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 3-4 December 2011. 
• "The Future of the City and the International Law of the Future," in Law of the Future and the Future of Law, Sam Muller et al. (eds), (Torkel Opsahl EPublisher, 2011).
• "On Faith in the Moral Force of International Law: Martin Wight and Hugo de Groot," 12 (2) Journal of the History of International Law 329-346 (2010).
• "Non-State Actors and the International Rule of Law:Revisiting the 'Realist Theory' of International Legal Personality,"in M. Noortmann and C. Ryngaert (Eds), Non State Actors Dynamics in International Law.From Law-Takers to Law-Makers  (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2010).
• "Paul Ricoeur and international law: beyond 'the end of the subject': towards a reconceptualisation of international legal personality," in Fleur Johns (ed.), International Legal Personality , Series: The Library of Essays in International Law, Ashgate, (March 2010). (reprint from LJIL 2007).
• "Introduction: Mare Liberum Revisited 1609-2009" together with Gustaaf van Nifterik, Grotiana Vol. 30, Special Issue Mare Liberum 1609-2009, pp. 3-19 (December 2009).
• Special Report in The Broker (December 2009), "Cities of the world unite", which includes article "The Rising influence of Urban Actors." www.thebrokeronline.eu  
• "Paul Ricoeur and international law:beyond 'the end of the subject': towards a reconceptualisation of international legal personality," in A. Bianchi(ed.), Non-State Actors and International Law , Series: The Library of Essays in International Law, Ashgate, (August 2009). (reprint from LJIL 2007).
• "Internationalisering van de stad (deel 3)," in 19 Openbaar Bestuur, Tijdschrift voor Beleid, organisatie en politiek (Issue 1, January 2009), pp. 13-16.
• "Internationaliseringvan de stad (deel 2)," in 18 Openbaar Bestuur, Tijdschrift voor Beleid, organisatie en politiek (Issue 12, December 2008), pp. 11-15.
• "Internationalisering van de stad (deel 1)," in 18 Openbaar Bestuur, Tijdschrift voor Beleid, organisatie en politiek (Issue 11, November 2008), pp. 9-13.
• "Introduction", in: JE Nijman and PA Nollkaemper (Eds.), New Perspectives on the Divide between National and International Law (OUP, 2007, 416 p.), p. 1-14 (with André Nollkaemper).
• "Beyond the Divide," in: JE Nijman and PA Nollkaemper (Eds.) New Perspectives on the Divide Between National and International Law (Oxford: 2007, 416 p.), p. 341-360 (with André Nollkaemper).
• "Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670),reformer ofhumanity: A cosmopolitan contribution to the 17th century discourse on world peace," 7 Baltic Yearbook of International Law 2007, pp. 121-154.
• "Hoe houden we oorlog rechtvaardig?", in: Thijs Jansen, JanneNijman & Jan Willem Sap (eds.), Burgers en Barbaren. Over oorlog tussen recht enmacht , Amsterdam, Boom, 2007.
• "... die de vrede liefhebben, duyden alles tot vrede", bookreview of Henk Nellen, Hugo de Groot: een leven in strijd om de vrede 1583-1645, in: Thijs Jansen, JanneNijman & Jan Willem Sap (eds.), Burgers en Barbaren.Over oorlog tussenrecht en macht , Amsterdam, Boom,2007.
• "Paul Ricoeur and International Law: Beyond "The End of the Subject" - Towards a reconceptualisation of international legal personality" , 20 Leiden Journal of International Law 2007, pp. 25-64.
• "Corporate Social Responsibility: a conceptual challenge to international law" in: J.J.A.Hamers, C.A.Schwarz,enB.T.M. Steins Bisschop (eds.), Noodzaak, plicht of wenselijkheid van Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen: een multidisciplinaire verkenning , 2005, pp. 39-62.
• "Leibniz's Theory of Relative Sovereignty and International Legal Personality: Justice and Stability or the Last Great Defence of the Holy Roman Empire," NYU Working Papers series 2004/2.
• "Sovereignty & Personality: A Process of Inclusion", in G. Kreijen et al. (eds.),  State,Sovereignty, and InternationalGovernance , Oxford, OUP, 2002, pp. 109-144.  

Book (in Dutch):

Thijs Jansen, Janne Nijman & Jan Willem Sap (eds.), Burgers en Barbaren.Oorlog tussen recht en macht, Amsterdam, Boom, 2007.

Teaching

• History and Theory of International Law (Master Course)