Dr León Castellanos-Jankiewicz

Profile

León Castellanos-Jankiewicz is Researcher in International Law at the Asser Institute and Academic Coordinator of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research. His work focuses on international human rights law, the history of international law and minority protection. His paper 'Nationality, Alienage and Early International Rights' was awarded the inaugural David D. Caron Prize by the American Society of International Law in its 2019 Annual Meeting. Previously, he worked as Postdoctoral Researcher for the Dutch team in the Project on Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspective. Since 2023, León is a member of the National Researchers System of Mexico (Level I) in recognition of his original contributions to the field of international law.

Prior to taking his position at the Asser Institute, León was Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, where he co-organized a multidisciplinary research workshop on 'National Political Communities and International Institutions'. He has also been Visiting Research Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge (2017), Vienna's Institute for Human Sciences (2016) and Harvard Law School's Graduate Program (2015-16). Between 2017 and 2018 he was Postdoctoral Mobility Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation.  He holds a PhD in International Law from Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (summa cum laude), an MA in International Law from the Graduate Institute and a law degree from Anahuac Mayab University. 

León has extensive teaching experience, having delivered courses on various aspects of public international law at Bocconi University School of Law (Milan), the Riga Graduate School of Law, the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University. He has conducted Masters thesis supervisions at the University of Amsterdam, has been daily PhD supervisor at the Asser Institute and holds the Teaching Certificate issued by the European University Insitute's Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies. In addition to his academic work, León has delivered expert legal opinions and workshops at the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Mexican Foreign Ministry and the Centre for Constitutional Studies of the Mexican Supreme Court. In the summers of 2013 and 2014, he was Assistant to Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo at the United Nations International Law Commission.

Edited works

• International Law and Time: Narratives and Techniques, Berlin, Springer, co-editor with Klara Polackova Van Der Ploeg and Luca Pasquet (2022). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-09465-1.

• Online symposium on ‘Decolonization and Human Rights—The Dutch Case’, Verfassungsblog, Jan/Feb 2022, co-editor with Wiebe Hommes.

• Special Issue on ‘Historical Memory in Post-Communist Europe and the Rule of Law’ (2020) 5 European Papers (co-editor with Grazyna Baranowska).

Articles and book chapters

• ‘National Minorities and the Pitfalls of ‘Timeless’ Human Rights’ in Klara Polackova Van Der Ploeg, Luca Pasquet and León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, International Law and Time: Narratives and Techniques, Berlin, Springer (2022). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-09465-1_20.

• ‘Minority Rights Petitions: League of Nations’, Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (EiPro), Oxford, Oxford University Press (2020).

• ‘Introduction: Historical Memory in Post-Communist Europe and the Rule of Law’ (2020) 5 European Papers pp 95-106 (with Grazyna Baranowska). DOI: 10.15166/2499-8249/386.

• ‘Negotiating Equality: Minority Protection in the Versailles Settlement’ (2019) in Michel Erpelding, Burkhard Hess and Hélène Ruiz Fabri (eds), Peace Through Law: The Versailles Peace Treaty and Dispute Settlement after World War I, Nomos/Hart. DOI: 10.5771/9783845299167.

• ‘Serious Breaches of Peremptory Norms’ (2014) in André Nollkaemper and Ilias Plakokefalos (eds), Principles of Shared Responsibility in International Law: An Appraisal of the State of the Art, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp 284-311 (with Eric Wyler). DOI: 10.17/CBO9781139940009.

• ‘Security Council Listing Procedures and Human Rights’ (2013) Revista In Jure Anáhuac Mayab Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 117-142, ISSN 2007-6045.

• ‘Causation and International Shared Responsibility’ (2012) ACIL Research Paper No. 2012/07 (SHARES Series), Amsterdam Center for International Law.

• ‘State Responsibility and International Crimes’ (2010) in William Schabas and Nadia Bernaz (eds), Routledge Handbook of International Criminal Law, Oxford, Routledge, pp 385-406 (with Eric Wyler). ISBN: 9780415524506.

Academic blog posts

• 'Mexico v. Smith & Wesson: Judge Dismisses Complaint Citing PLCAA and Standing Issues', ASIL Insights, Volume 26, Issue 15, December 20, 2022 (with Leila Nadya Sadat).

• 'Ensuring Access to Courts for Gun Victims: The Case for Repealing PLCAA', Just Security, 8 September 2022 (with Kaya van der Horst).

• ‘Decolonization and Human Rights—The Dutch Case: An Introduction’, Verfassungsblog, 24 January 2022 (with Wiebe Hommes), DOI: 10.17176/20220124-180324-0.

• ‘Mexico v. Smith & Wesson: U.S. Court Duel Over Extraterritorial Legal Issues Looms with Motion to Dismiss’, Just Security, 14 December 2021.

• ‘US Border Closure Breaches International Refugee Law’, Opinio Juris, COVID-19 Symposium edited by Barrie Sander and Jason Rudall, 3 April 2020.

• ‘Mexico’s Amnesty Proposal: An Instrument of Transitional Justice?’, Just Security, 4 March 2020.

• ‘Nationality and Citizenship: The Untold Story of Human Rights’, Max Weber Programme Newsletter, Winter 2019. 

• ‘The Lauterpacht Lectures 2017: Towards a Global Private Law?’, Cambridge International Law Journal Blog, 29 August 2017.

• ‘Human Rights and the End of Status’, Humanity Journal Blog, 27 April 2016. 

Opinion

• 'Víctimas de Violencia Armada y Acceso a Tribunales: Sobre la Necesidad de Derogar PLCAA', Nexos, 13 September 2022 (with Kaya ven der Horst, in Spanish).

• ‘México vs. Smith & Wesson: una batalla legal sobre elementos extraterritoriales’, Nexos, 16 December 2021 (in Spanish).

• ‘La Frontera Blindada contra Migrantes’, El Sol de México, 25 March 2020 (in Spanish).

• ‘La Amnistía Mexicana: Sus Tres Defectos’, Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, 28 January 2020 (in Spanish).

• ‘Matrimonio Igualitario en el Derecho Internacional’, Nexos: el Juego de la Suprema Corte, 19 June 2017 (in Spanish).

• ‘Trump y la Migración Trasfronteriza’, Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, 5 June 2017 (in Spanish).

Media (selected)

• 'Transnational Civil Litigation and Corporate Liability: Mexico v Smith & Wesson', video recording of the expert panel discussion convened with Prof. Dr. Thilo Marauhn and hosted by the Embassy of Mexico to the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 2 May 2022.

• 'Mexico v Smith & Wesson', Hablemos de Derecho Internacional podcast, 28 April 2022 (in Spanish).

• 'Private Law and the Making of Human Rights', public lecture at the Johns Hopkins Unviersity School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna Institute for Policy Research, 1 November 2021.

• 'Decolonisation and Human Rights in the Kingdom of the Netherlands', workshop co-convened with Wiebe Hommes on 14 October 2021.

• ‘Truth and Transitional Justice in Latin America’, online Expert Panel on Missing Persons and Memory Governance, 24 September 2020.

• ‘Los derechos de los refugiados ante COVID-19: Análisis de la frontera México-Estados Unidos’, Hablemos de Derecho Internacional podcast, 21 July 2020 (in Spanish).

• ‘Foundations of Sovereignty and Statehood’, video lecture for the course 'Sovereignty and Statehood, Leiden University College, Spring 2020.

• ‘How can memory laws and memory governance affect democracy?’, Asser Institute, video interview, 13 September 2019.

• ‘Negotiating Equality: Minority Protection in the Versailles Settlement’, Max Planck Institute Luxembourg, conference on Peace Through Law: The Versailles Peace Treaty and dispute settlement after WWI, 6 December 2017.

Twitter: @Leoncastjan

Updated on January 2, 2023

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