Phoebe Okowa - School of Law

Profile

Phoebe Okowa is Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary University of London. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Doctorate from the University of Oxford. An advocate of the High Court of Kenya, she previously taught at the University of Bristol and has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Helsinki, Lille New York and Stockholm. In 2015, Professor Okowa, will be a Global Professor of Law at NYU law school. Professor Okowa is the joint editor of Foundations of Public International Law (Oxford University Press) and Queen Mary Studies in International Law (Brill).

Her teaching interests are in the broad area of Public International Law, especially the law of armed conflict, international environmental law and international criminal law. She has published extensively on a wide range of topics including the law of state responsibility, use of force and the protection of natural resources in conflict zones, as well as the relationship between state and individual responsibility for international crimes. In 2006, she completed a major study funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council on International Law questions arising from the disintegration of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has advised Public Sector Organizations on questions of Public International Law and served as a member of the IUCN Committee on Environmental Law and the International Law Association Committee on Transnational Enforcement of Environmental Law.

Undergraduate Teaching

LAW6032 Public International Law

Postgraduate Teaching

QLLM053 International Criminal Law
QLLM057 International Law of Armed Conflict and Use of Force

Research

Dr Okowa’s research interests are primarily in the field of Public International Law, especially International Environmental Law, Use of Force, and State Responsibility.

Publications

Selected Publications

Books

Phoebe N. Okowa, State Responsibility for Transboundary Air Pollution in International Law, (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000, ISBN 0-19-826097-0,) ix- 285.
See reviews in:
European Journal of International Law 2002, pp. 545-559 , 50 International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 472-473; 14(2) 2002 Journal of Environmental Law ; 60(3) Cambridge law Journal 629-630; Leiden Journal of International Law, Vol. 14, Issue no. 02, March 2004; Modern Law Review, (2002) Vol. 65 Number 4 632-634
Phoebe Okowa and Jonas Ebbesson, (editors) Environmental Law and Justice in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-521-87968-2) Reviewed in 2009 British Yearbook of International Law

Key Articles and Essays

Phoebe Okowa and Malcolm Evans, ‘Approaches to Responsibility in International Courts’ in The International Responsibility of the European Union, (March 2013)
Phoebe Okowa, 'Sovereignty Contests and the Exploitation of Natural Resources in Conflict Zones', in Current Legal Problems (2013)
Phoebe Okowa, State and Individual criminal Responsibility in Internal Conflicts: Contours of an Evolving Relationship, 20 (2009) Finnish Yearbook of International Law p. 143-188
The International Court of Justice and the Georgia Russia Dispute, 2011 Human Rights Law Review, Volume 11, Issue 4, pp. 739-757
Case Concerning Ahmadou Sadio Diallo (Republic of Guinea V. Democratic Republic of Congo), 2008 International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 1. pp. 219
Phoebe Okowa, Natural Resources in Situations of Armed Conflict: Is there a Coherent Framework for Protection? 9 (2007) International Community Law Review, January 237
Phoebe Okowa, Congo’s War: The Legal Dimension of a Protracted Conflict, 2006, British Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 77 , 203
Phoebe Okowa, Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 2006, Vol. 55, pp. 742
Phoebe N. Okowa, ‘Case Concerning the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary / Slovakia)”, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 1998, Vol. 47, 688
Phoebe N. Okowa, Procedural Obligations in International Environmental Agreements” 1996, British Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 67, p. 275
Phoebe Okowa, ‘Legal Consequences of EC Participation in International Environmental Agreements’ in M. D. Evans (ed.) Aspects of Statehood and Institutionalism in Contemporary Europe (Dartmouth Press, Aldershot, 1997), pp. 301
Phoebe N. Okowa, ‘The EC and International Environmental Agreements,’ Yearbook of European Law, 1995, Vol. 15, pp. 169
Ojwang’, J.B and Phoebe N. Okowa, ‘The One Party State and Due Process of Law: The Kenyan Position in a Comparative Framework’, African Journal of International and Comparative Law, 1989, Vol. 1, pp. 177-205

Book Chapters

Phoebe Okowa, ‘The Security Council, the African Union and the International Criminal Court: Anatomy of a Problematic Relationship’, in Jonas Ebbesson, Maries Jacobsson et al. (eds.), International law and Changing Perceptions of Security: Liber Amicorum Said Mahmoudi (Brill Nijhoff, 2014), 228-234
Phoebe Okowa, ‘Principle 18: Notification and Assistance in Case of Emergency in Jorge E Vanuales, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: A Commentary (Oxford 2015) pp. 471-492
Phoebe Okowa ‘The International Court and the Legacy of the Barcelona Traction Case’ in Charles Jalloh and Olufemi Elias (eds), Shielding Humanity: Essays in International Law in Honour of Judge Abdul Koroma (Brill 2015) pp.104-130
Phoebe Okowa, ‘Responsibility for Environmental Damage in M. Fitzmaurice et al (eds) Research Handbook on International Environmental Law, (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2010) p. 303
Phoebe Okowa, ‘Interpreting Constitutive Instruments of International Criminal Tribunals : Reflections on the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, in M. Fitzmaurice et al (eds.) Treaty Interpretation and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: 30 Years On (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2010) p. 333
Phoebe Okowa, “Issues of Admissibility and the Law on International Responsibility” in M.D. Evans, (ed) International Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford , 3rd edition Oxford 2010)
Phoebe Okowa, ‘The Legal Framework for the Protection of the Environment Against Transboundary Air Pollution: A Reflection on Customary and Treaty Law’ in H. Post (ed) The Protection of Ambient Air in International and European Law (Utrecht 2009) p. 53
Phoebe Okowa, “Environmental Justice in Situations of Armed Conflict” in Phoebe Okowa and Jonas Ebbesson (eds) Environmental Law and Justice in Context (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009) p. 231
Phoebe Okowa, The Plundering of Natural Resources and the Destruction of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict in 2007, Hague Joint Conference on Contemporary Issues of International Law, p. 243
Phoebe Okowa, ‘The Legacy of Trail Smelter in the Field of Transboundary Air Pollution’ in Rebecca M. Bratspies and Russell A. Miller (eds.), Transboundary Harm in International Law (Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2006) pp. 195
Phoebe Okowa, ‘United States Unilateralism in a Multilateral Legal Order”’ in M. Buckley and R. Singh (eds.) , (2006) The Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism: Global Responses, Global Consequences (Routledge, London 2006) 200
Phoebe N. Okowa, ‘Defences in the Jurisprudence of International Tribunals’ in G.Goodwin-Gill and S.Talmon (eds.), The Reality of International Law: Essays in Honour of Ian Brownlie (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999), pp. 389
Phoebe N. Okowa, ‘The settlement of International Environmental Disputes: A Re-appraisal’ in M. D. Evans, Remedies in International Law: The Institutional Dilemma ( Hart Publishing, Oxford, 1998), pp. 157

Supervision

Dr Okowa welcomes proposals for postgraduate supervision on most aspects of public international law especially, armed conflict, state responsibility and international environmental law.

Areas of study

Study at Queen Mary

Experience Queen Mary

Professor Phoebe Okowa, LLB (Nairobi) BCL (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon), Advocate (High Court of Kenya)

Professor of Public International Law