Martti Koskenniemi

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Martti Koskenniemi (born 1953) is an international lawyer and a former Finnish diplomat. Currently he is professor of International Law in the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. He is well known for his critical approach to international law.

Previously he has been Global Professor of Law in the New York University, and a member of the International Law Commission (2002-2005). He served in the Finnish Diplomatic Service in the years 1978-1996, lastly as director of the Division of International Law. He was Finland's counsel in the International Court of Justice in the Passage through the Great Belt case (Finland v. Denmark) (1991-2) [1].

In 1997 to 2003 he served as a judge in the administrative tribunal of the Asian Development Bank.

He is a member of the Institut de droit international.

[edit] Writings

From Apology to Utopia; The Structure of International Legal Argument (first published 1989) presents a critical view of international law as an argumentative practice that attempts to remove the political from international relations. It is shown how international law is vulnerable to criticisms of being either an irrelevant moralist utopia or an apology to Realpolitik.

The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (2001) has two agendas, first of which is to develop an intellectual history of international law, and to offer a critique of that history. The second is to offer a sociology of the profession of international law, using biographical studies of Hersch Lauterpacht, Carl Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau.