Letizia Lo Giacco is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University. Her research explores structural questions of international law, with a focus on courts and judicial practices in global governance, as well as questions of authority at the intersection between the public/private divide. Her current research investigates the role of private actors in areas of public interest from an institutional standpoint, as part of a long-term project on the 'publicness' of public international law. Letizia sits in the Board of Editors of the Leiden Journal of International Law and is the co-founder of the Leiden Hub on the Theory and History of International Law, an interdisciplinary platform for theoretical and/or historical questions on international law.

More information about Letizia Lo Giacco

Overview

Letizia Lo Giacco is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University. Her research explores structural questions of international law, with a focus on courts and judicial practices in global governance, as well as questions of authority at the intersection between the public/private divide. Her current research investigates the role of private actors in areas of public interest from an institutional standpoint, as part of a long-term project on the 'publicness' of public international law. Letizia sits in the Board of Editors of the Leiden Journal of International Law and is the co-founder of the Leiden Hub on the Theory and History of International Law, an interdisciplinary platform for theoretical and/or historical questions on international law.

Profile

Letizia holds an LLD (Doctor of Laws degree) in Public International Law from Lund University and an LLM in International Humanitarian Law from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (Graduate Institute for International Development Studies/University of Geneva). She held positions as visiting fellow at the European University Institute (2024-2025), the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, at the Amsterdam Centre of International Law, and at the Manchester International Law Centre, to which she was also an invited guest lecturer in international law (2018 and 2019). Prior to joining Leiden University, Letizia was an adjunct in public international law, international criminal law and international humanitarian law within the LLM in International Human Rights Law at Lund University Faculty of Law (Sweden). She also gained professional experience in international institutions including the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the European Commission (Kimberly Process).

Letizia’s research combines theory and practice of international law and looks at transnational phenomena through the lens of public international law. She has published on questions of authority and formation of international law, the exercise of discretion by courts in interpreting international law, and on the use of judicial decisions as epistemic tools in international law argumentation. Letizia is the author of Judicial Decisions in International Law Argumentation (Hart Publishing, 2022) and was the recipient of the 2024 Rosalyn Higgins Prize for her article "When a Dispute Exists: The Emerging Evidentiary Practice of the ICJ in Common Interests Proceedings" awarded every year to the best article published on the Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals.

Letizia sits in the Board of Editors of the Leiden Journal of International Law and has served as a peer-reviewer for a number of journals, including Transnational Legal Theory, the Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals, the Nordic Journal of International Law, the International Review of the Red Cross, and LJIL. She is a founding member of the European Society of International Law interest group on international criminal justice.

At Leiden University, Letizia is the director of International Law in Context: Historical, Sociological and Theoretical Perspectives within the LLM in Public International Law, as well as a co-instructor in The Law and Practice of International Organizations. She also convenes International Criminal Law within the International Justice program at Leiden University College, where she has also taught Principles of Public International Law. She is in charge of the Leiden-Edinburgh Summer program on Global Law, which she co-designed from its inaugural edition.

Publications