Dr Pietro Sullo

Pietro Sullo is a reader in international law at Brunel University in London. His interests include public international law, human rights, international criminal law (in particular genocide), transitional justice and refugee law. He has studied law at the University Federico II in Naples and has specialized in international and human rights law, earning a Master of Arts in Human Rights and Conflict Management and a PhD in international law at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento, Pisa, Italy. During and after his doctoral studies he has conducted field research in post-conflict settings including Cambodia, Guatemala, Rwanda and South Sudan. These experiences have deeply shaped his research and teaching agenda which is characterized by a strong sensitivity to social inequalities, the Global South, the long-term impact of colonization processes, subaltern studies and TWAIL.

His record of publications includes one monograph, articles in international peer reviewed journals, chapters in edited books, as well as pieces of research for NGOs and international organizations. His book, “Beyond Genocide: Transitional Justice and Gacaca Courts in Rwanda, The Search for Truth Justice and Reconciliation” (2018, Springer-Asser Press) assesses both the compliance of post-genocide gacaca courts with international fair trial standards and the reconciliation process in Rwanda. He has also contributed to policy oriented research works such as the UNHCR study “Left in a Limbo: UNHCR's Study on the Implementation of the Dublin III Regulation”. Pietro has been admitted to the Italian Bar in 2008 and is a member of the advisory board of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law (Brill).

Dr. Sullo has covered the position of senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, of director at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, and of rector at the Riga Graduate School of Law. He has lectured various subjects including international law and transitional justice at the Dickson Poon School of Law at the King’s College in London, the University of Kent (BSIS) and the University of Leuven.

He has also cooperated with international NGOs and worked as a senior legal expert on human rights and transitional justice for the Libya Constitution Drafting Assembly.

Pietro has two kids, 5 and 2 years old. In his free time, he loves cooking, cinema, table tennis and chatting with friends while sipping at a coffee (espresso). He prefers to be called Piero rather than Pietro.

Publications

Monographs

“Beyond Genocide: Transitional Justice and Gacaca Courts in Rwanda. The Search for Truth Justice and Reconciliation”, Springer-Asser Press, The Hague, 2018.

“The Unresolved Issue of Property Restitution after the German Reunification. A Human Rights-based Analysis”, under work.

Articles in international peer review journals

“The EU Dublin III Regulation under Human Rights Scrutiny. Nonsense upon Stilts?”, European Journal of International Law (under review).

“The Human Rights Architecture of the Libyan Draft Constitution”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, (under review).

“Frontex”, in: Wolfrum, R. (ed.): Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming.

“Transitional Justice in the Libyan Constitutional Transition”, in Diritti Umani e Diritto Internazionale, Vol. 14, N. 3, 2020.

“Common European Asylum System”, in: Wolfrum, R. (ed.): Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019.

 “The ICC as a transitional justice actor: New space for victims?”, in Diritti Umani e Diritto Internazionale, Special Issue on Transitional Justice, Gabriella Citroni (ed.), Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017.

“Alternatives to Detention in France: much ado about law, little about criminology” with Martine Herzog-Evans, Delphine Boesel and Stephan Parmentier, Criminology, Victimology and Security Review, Vol. X, N. 3, 2016.

“Justice for Darfur: the ICC and domestic justice initiatives eleven years after the UN Security Council Referral”, International Criminal Law Review, Brill, Leiden, 2016.

“Restorative Justice”, in: Wolfrum, R. (ed.): Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016.

“1994-2014: The Rwandan Genocide in the Rear-View Mirror”, in Afriche e Orienti, AIEP Publisher, San Marino, 2015.

“Lois Mémorielles in Post-Genocide Societies: Rwandan Law on Genocide Ideology under International Human Rights Law Scrutiny”, in Leiden Journal of International Law, Cambridge University Press 2014.

“Decolonization”, (British Territories), in: Wolfrum, R. (ed.): Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014.

“War Reparations”, (with Julian Wyatt), in: Wolfrum, R. (ed.): Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014.

“Lubanga Case”, in: Wolfrum, R. (ed.): Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014.

Chapters in edited volumes

“Writing History through Criminal Law: State Sponsored Memory in Rwanda”, in The Palgrave Handbook of State Sponsored History, Berber Bevernage and Nico Wouters, (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018, (peer review).

“To repair the irreparable: Post-genocide justice, legal pluralism and rule of law”, in Genocidio: declinazioni e risposte di inizio secolo, Lauso Zagato (ed.), Giappichelli, Torino, Italy, 2018.

“The International Criminal Court Reparation System: Punishment, Retaliation, Restoration”, in Retaliation, Toward an Interdisciplinary Understanding of a Basic Human Condition, Bertrand Turner and Günter Schlee (eds.), Berghahn Books, Oxford-New York, 2017 (peer review).

“Punishing mass atrocities: penological developments in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide”, in Transitional Criminal Justice in Post-Dictatorial and Post-Conflict Societies, Agata Fijalkowski and Raluca  Lucescu (eds.), Intersentia, Cambridge-Antwerp-Portland, 2015 (peer review).