Dr León Castellanos-Jankiewicz

Profile

León Castellanos-Jankiewicz is Senior Researcher in International Law at the Asser Institute, and supervisor of the International Law Clinic on Access to Justice for Gun Violence at the University of Amsterdam Faculty of Law. His work focuses on the human rights implications of irresponsible arms trade.

Castellanos-Jankiewicz leads the project on 'Enabling Civil Society Efforts to Address the Misuse, Diversion and Abuse of Arms Exports in Latin America' within the Asser Institute, which was awarded a grant by the U.S. State Department (2023-2025). 

He lectures regularly in universities across Europe in English, Spanish and French. Overtime, he has written for print and online publications including El País, NRC and Just Security. He is a listed expert in the Forum on the Arms Trade and sits on the Advisory Committee of Global Action on Gun Violence.

Previously, he was Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute. He has held visiting positions at the University of Giessen (2023), the University of Cambridge (2017) and Harvard Law School (2015-16). He holds a PhD in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute. 

Book

• 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.

Symposia

• 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

• 'The Sovereignty of Sharing: An Interview with Michael Fakhri (Part I)', Opinio Juris, July 6, 2023 (with Carl E. Lewis and Melanie Schneider).

• 'The Sovereignty of Sharing: An Interview with Michael Fakhri (Part II)', Opinio Juris, July 6, 2023 (with Carl E. Lewis and Melanie Schneider).

• 'Including the Arms Sector in the EU Corporate Due Diligence Directive', Verfassungsblog, May 19, 2023 (with Melanie Schneider).

• 'Applying Mexican Law in U.S. Courts? Mexico v Smith & Wesson', Conflictoflaws.net, April 8, 2023.

• 'Mexico Appeals in Case Against Gun Manufacturers', Just Security, April 4, 2023.

• 'Empresas de armas y derechos humanos: México solicita Opinión Consultiva a la Corte Interamericana', Agenda Estado de Derecho, March 3, 2023.

• '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.

• ‘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

• 'European arms manufacturers are virtually untouchable in court. That has to change', NRC, 8 August, 2023.

• 'The armor of the European arms industry', El País, 31 July, 2023.

• 'El blindaje de las armerías europeas', El País, 31 July, 2023.

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

• ‘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.
   

Personal website

Twitter: @Leoncastjan

Updated on November 1, 2023.

Related news

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  14 Mar 2023: [New publication] Overlooking continuity: National minorities and ‘timeless’ human rights

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  9 Sep 2022: [International human rights law] Urgent legal reforms needed as victims of gun violence face limited access to courts in the United States