Diane Desierto

About/Bio

Prof. Dr. Diane Desierto (JSD, Yale) is Professor of Law and Global Affairs, Human Rights LLM Faculty Director, and Founding Director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at Notre Dame Law School, with a joint appointment at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame (USA). She is a Faculty Fellow in five of the University's Institutes (Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, Kellogg Institute of International Studies, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, Pulte Institute for Global Development, and Nanovic Institute of European Studies); Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the Philippines Judicial Academy, and Co-Principal Investigator of the Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance Lab. Diane formerly clerked at the International Court of Justice, served as Director of Studies (and Faculty) at the Hague Academy of International Law, was Legal Adviser to the Philippines' Senate President and Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; serves as Resource Expert for ASEAN, the Asian Development Bank, EU External Action Service, USAID, and is the current Chair-Rapporteur of the Expert Drafting Group of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development. She teaches, publishes, and practices in the areas of public international law, international economic law and development, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, international arbitration and dispute settlement, maritime security, and all areas of ASEAN Law. Diane is a designated Affiliate and Philippines Focal Point of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Bar Association; counsel for Southeast Asia-related international claims and sovereign arbitration disputes where she has been successively hailed as one of the "Future Leaders in Arbitration" by Who's Who Legal; Member of the Advisory Board of Oxford Investment Claims and Co-Chair of the Oxford Investment Academy; Member of the Academic Forum for the UNCITRAL Working Group on Reform of ISDS; Member of the Drafting Team for the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration; Academic Council Member of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration; Listed Arbitrator of the British Virgin Islands Arbitration Centre; and a Member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of International Law.

Recently Published

Some Blog Statistics

The blog’s editors, with the help of our Associate Editor Tal Gross, prepared some statistics for the recent annual meeting of the EJIL Editorial and Scientific and Advisory Boards, which may also be of interest to our readers and authors. A summary of the salient points is as follows. In the August 2023-August 2024 period, the blog published…

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Welcoming Nehal Bhuta as Editor

We are happy to announce that Nehal Bhuta will be joining us as the fifth co-editor of the blog. Nehal will be well known to our readers, especially because he had already edited the blog, back in its early days. Nehal holds the Chair of Public International Law at University of Edinburgh and is Co-Director of the Edinburgh…

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China’s Duties to Prevent and Redress the Human Rights Impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative

China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative continues to expand its project financing activities to around 147 countries in the world as of this writing. This exceptional global footprint, undertaken primarily through sovereign lending or sovereign-driven financing, puts China in a privileged position of international responsibility to ensure respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights in global…

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