Jochen von Bernstorff
About/Bio
Jochen von Bernstorff (Tübingen) holds the Chair for Constitutional law, International Law and Human Rights at the University of Tübingen and has taught international law as a visiting professor at the German Federal Foreign Office Academy Berlin, Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II (IHEI), Université Aix-Marseille, and at National Taiwan University Taipei. Before that, he was with the German Federal Foreign Office (diplomatic service 2002-2007) in the Multilateral Human Rights Policy Task Force of the UN-Department and a senior research fellow and spokesperson at the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and Public International Law in Heidelberg (2007-2011).
Recently Published
What to Hope For? Redistribution in the Climate Crisis
The struggle against climate change is, fundamentally, also a struggle for justice. For one, climate law has been a focal point for articulating redistributive demands — ranging from calls for additional climate financing via demands for technology transfer, all the way to reparations and what is called ‘loss and damage’. For another, the objective of limiting global warming…
A Fossil Fuel Ban Treaty: Corrective Treaty-Making Beyond Consensus
December 15, 2023
Jochen von Bernstorff
As the COP28 drew to a close the day before yesterday, the final outcome left many disappointed. The first global stocktake, regarded as the central decision of the conference, was adopted after intense negotiations over the final text. COP 28 could neither agree on the overdue call on parties to phase-out current fossil fuel extractions nor to stop…
German International Law Scholarship and the Postcolonial Turn
January 7, 2015
Jochen von Bernstorff
International law scholarship from the German-speaking world has an impressive and much-invoked theoretical tradition. Nineteenth century German positivism centring on the will of the state as the formal basis of law (Jellinek and Triepel) made a lasting impression on modern Western international law scholarship and also induced two highly influential in depth critiques of Staatswillenspositivismus just after the…
Popular articles by Jochen von Bernstorff
A Fossil Fuel Ban Treaty: Corrective Treaty-Making Beyond Consensus
December 15, 2023
Jochen von Bernstorff
As the COP28 drew to a close the day before yesterday, the final outcome left many disappointed. The first global stocktake, regarded as the central decision of the conference, was adopted after intense negotiations over the final text. COP 28 could neither agree on the overdue call on parties to phase-out current fossil fuel extractions nor to stop…
What to Hope For? Redistribution in the Climate Crisis
The struggle against climate change is, fundamentally, also a struggle for justice. For one, climate law has been a focal point for articulating redistributive demands — ranging from calls for additional climate financing via demands for technology transfer, all the way to reparations and what is called ‘loss and damage’. For another, the objective of limiting global warming…
German International Law Scholarship and the Postcolonial Turn
January 7, 2015
Jochen von Bernstorff
International law scholarship from the German-speaking world has an impressive and much-invoked theoretical tradition. Nineteenth century German positivism centring on the will of the state as the formal basis of law (Jellinek and Triepel) made a lasting impression on modern Western international law scholarship and also induced two highly influential in depth critiques of Staatswillenspositivismus just after the…