Dr Patricia Hobbs
Senior Lecturer in Public International Law

Research area(s)

• State sovereignty
• The Rome Statute and its implementation by domestic courts
• Compliance in international law (including rational choice theory)
• The right to a fair trial
• Judicial economy
• Immunity of state officials re: international crimes
• Jus ad bellum and jus in bello
• The Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
• Gender-based crimes
• Jus cogens norms (in particular, torture)

Research Interests

Patricia’s research interests lie in the areas of international criminal law, international human rights law, international public law and international humanitarian law. Her interest in international criminal justice and the never again narrative provide the platform for her research interests, although the reality of international law provides the underlying backdrop for the development and progression of her research.

Patricia has a strong interest in evaluating the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court in light of the challenges and limitations posed by the principle of state sovereignty. Moreover, the relatively new criminal justice machinery, established by the Rome Statute regime, is also facing procedural challenges regarding rights of fair trial, an issue that is closely related to the Court’s legitimacy. This is the subject of her next article, ‘The right to fair trial and judicial economy at the International Criminal Court’.

Project details

In 2016 Paricia was awrded a British Academy small grant to carry out research on the International Criminal Court cooperation regime. The research started on 2 January 2017 adn it is due to complete in December 2018. So far it has produced two conference papers ('The ICC Cooperation Regime: In Search of Meaning', SLSA April 2017; 'Achieving the Catalysing Effect of Complementarity through a rejection of Gabon's self-referral to the ICC', Queen Mary/SOAS Criminal Justice and Accountability in Africa, October 2017). The Gabon paper has been submitted to the Journal of International Criminal Justice (currently under review) adn the first conference paper is due to be submitted to the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law.