Ardi Imseis

Ardi Imseis is a scholar and practitioner of public international law. He joined the Queen’s Faculty of Law in 2018, following a 12-year career as a UN official in the Middle East, first with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and then with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since leaving the UN, Imseis has continued to engage in high-level public advocacy on international law, peace and security, including a number of invited addresses to the UN Security Council.  He has served as legal advisor and advocate in cases before the International Court of Justice. Between 2019-2021, Imseis was appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to serve as a Member of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts, a commission of inquiry mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate and report on violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the conflict in Yemen. He serves as the Co-Academic Director of the International Law Program that Queen's Law offers at Bader College, Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, United Kingdom.

Professor Imseis’s scholarship has appeared in, inter alia, the American Journal of International Law, the Berkeley Journal of International Law, the Harvard International Law Journal, the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, and the University of British Columbia Law Review. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the European Journal of International Law and the Third World Approaches to International Law Review. He is former Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2008-2019), Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Law, American University in Cairo and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Human Rights Fellow, Columbia Law School. Between 2010 and 2011, he served as Senior Legal Counsel to the Honourable Catherine A. Fraser, Chief Justice of Alberta.

Research Foci:

• Public international law;
• International humanitarian law;
• International human rights law;
• International refugee law;
• International criminal law;
• International legal history;
• Law and practice of the United Nations.

Recent Professional Accomplishments

• Invited to give testimony to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, Ottawa, Canada, on a House study concerning Canada and the Two-State Solution, October 2024.
• Invited to address the United Nations on the Nakba and the UN’s Permanent Responsibility for the Question of Palestine, May 2024.
• Invited to brief the House of Commons, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, Ottawa, Canada, on the future of Canada's diplomatic capacity, December 2023.
• Invited to address the United Nations Security Council on the Third Report of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, December 2020. See here for text.
• Invited to brief the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the situation in Yemen, December 2020
• Member, Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, United Nations Human Rights Council (2019-2021)
• Invited by the European Council on Foreign Relations to brief British Members of Parliament and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on recognition of states in international law, June 2018.
• Invited to address the United Nations Security Council on protection of civilians in armed conflict, May 2016.
• Invited to brief members of the French Sénat on the international law governing belligerent occupation, Palais du Luxembourg, Paris, France, December 2015.

Selected Publications

For a full list of Professor Imseis' publications, please consult his CV.

Books:

• The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Articles:

• "Prolonged Occupation:  At the Vanishing Point of the Jus ad Bellum/Jus in Bello Distinction" (2023) 58:3 Texas International Law Journal 33.
• "On Membership of the United Nations and the State of Palestine: A Critical Account” (2021) 34:4 Leiden Journal of International Law.
• "The United Nations Partition of Palestine Revisited: On the Origins of Palestine's International Legal Subalternity" (2021) 57:1 Stanford Journal of International Law 1-54
• "State of Exception: Critical Reflections on the Amici Curiae Observations and Other Communications of States Parties to the Rome Statue in the Palestine Situation" (2020) 18:4 Journal of International Criminal Justice 905-925.
• "Negotiating the Illegal: On the United Nations and the Illegal Occupation of Palestine, 1967-2020" (2020) 31:3 European Journal of International Law 1055-1085.
  • This paper was the subject of a debate commissioned by the European Journal of International Law. See: Hughes, D. “Of Tactics, Illegal Occupation and the Boundaries of Legal Capability: A Reply to Ardi Imseis” (2020) 31:3 European Journal of International Law 1087-1103; and
  • Imseis, A. “Of Straw Men, the United Nations and Illegal Occupation: A Rejoinder to David Hughes”, EJIL: Talk!, 18 February 2021.
• “Critical Reflections on the International Humanitarian Law Aspects of the ICJ Wall Advisory Opinion” (2005) 99:1 American Journal of International Law 102.
• “On the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Occupied Palestinian Territory” (2003) 44:1 Harvard International Law Journal 65.
• ‘Moderate’ Torture on Trial: Critical Reflections on the Israeli Supreme Court Judgment Concerning the Legality of General Security Service Interrogation Methods” (2001) 19:2 Berkeley Journal of International Law 328.
• “Law, Reality and the Oslo ‘Peace’ Process” (2000) 20:3 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 469. (Extended review of From Occupation to Interim Accords: Israel and the Palestinian Territories (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1997).
• “Facts on the Ground: An Examination of Israeli Municipal Policy in East Jerusalem” (2000) 15:5 American University International Law Review 1039 

Book Chapters:

• “Speaking Truth to Power: On Edward Said and the Palestinian Freedom Struggle", in A. Iskandar & H. Rustom, eds., Edward Said: Emancipation and Representation (University of California Press, 2010).

UN Publications:

• “Situation of Human Rights in Yemen including Violations and Abuses since September 2014, Report of the Group of International and Regional Experts on Yemen", 10 September 2021, UN Doc. A/HRC/48/20.
• "Situation of human rights in Yemen, including violations and abuses since September 2014-Report of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen", 28 September 2020, UN Doc. A/HRC/45/6 (Conference Room Paper, UN Doc. A/HRC/45/CRP.7)

Opinion, Editorial and Media Interviews:

• "Disunited Nations: The UN and the Middle East", documentary directed by Christophe Cotteret, ARTE.
• “On Palestine and the End of the West’s International Legal Order”, EJIL Talk!, 26 November 2025.
• “Recognition, the United Nations and the Question of Palestine”, Called to the Bar: International Law Over Drinks, Season 2, 4 October 2025.
• “Too Little, Too Late? On the Meaning and Consequences of the Recognition of the State of Palestine”, Opinio Juris, 25 September 2025.
• “Voormalig VN-medewerker Ardi Imseis: ‘De wet wordt gebruikt om onrecht te handhaven” (“Former UN employee Ardi Imseis: The law is being used to perpetuate injustice”), Apache (Belgium) 22 August 202.
• “Paradigm Shifts and the Palestine Moment: On the International Court of Justice and the Quest to Save International Law” (2025) 9 PKI Journal 5.
• “Is There a Legal Basis for Israel’s UNRWA Ban?”, Jerusalem Story, 13 November 2024.
• “A Seismic Change: Illegal Occupation, Serious Breaches of Fundamental Norms of International Law, and the Collapse of the Jus ad Bellum/Jus in Bello Distinction”, Verfassungsblog, 10 October 2024.
• “Israel’s Deadly Nuseirat Raid Violates International Law: Experts”, TRT News, 13 June 2024.
• “Israeli Forces Depict their Abuses in Gaza in Shocking Videos that Proliferate on Social Networks”, Franceinfo, 3 June 2024.
• “US Says Israel is Complying with International Law. ‘Complete Nonsense’, Experts Say”, Middle East Eye, 5 April 2024.
• “Israeli Soldiers Play with Gaza Women’s Underwear in Online Posts”, Reuters, March 2024.
• “Palestine’s Quest for Statehood was Hindered From the Start, a Legal Expert Argues”, PassBlue, 18 March 2024.
• “Israel-Gaza: The International Court of Justice Wields Soft Power”, interview with Anne McMillan, International Bar Association, 7 March 2024.
• “Sår tvil om rett til selvforsvar”, interview with Pernille Solheim, Klassekampen (Norway), 10 November 2023.
• “Reflections on the Ukraine Moment and Western Selectivity: A Response to Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk and Monica Hakimi”, CIL Dialogues, 27 March 2023.
• “Russia Invades Ukraine – and violates international law”, Queen’s Law Faculty Insight, 24 February 2022.
• UN News: UN Catch Up – Dateline Geneva, Climate Warning, Afghanistan, Burundi, Yemen (from 4:31 min mark), 16 September 2021.
• “Story in Focus: Interview with Ms. Melissa Parke and Mr. Ardi Imseis, Members of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen”, Global Rights Compliance, January 2021.
• "Quick Thoughts: Ardi Imseis on the ICC and Palestine”, Jadaliyya, 22 February 2021.
• "UNRWA in a Time of Crisis: Seperating the Red Herrings from Legitimate Shortcomings", Al-Shabaka, 8 October 2019.
• “Security Council Resolution 2334: An Old-New Approach to Palestine at the United Nations?”, Jadaliyya, 26 December 2016.
• “Trudeau and Israel/Palestine: Paragon of Progressives or Much Ado About Nothing?”, Embassy, 6 April 2016.
• “Remembering the 2014 Gaza Conflict: One Year On” (Text of 20 July 2015 Address to the United Nations Security Council), Cambridge Review of International Affairs Views, 22 September 2015.
• “Palestine and the ICC: Why International Law Matters in the Middle East", Cambridge Review of International Affairs Views, 6 April 2015, republished by Al-Ahram Online, 16 April 2015.
• “Quebec Judge’s Ban on Hijab in Courtroom a Judicial Fiasco”, Law Times, 30 March 2015.