Devika Hovell
About/Bio
Devika Hovell is an Associate Professor of Public International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and a Master of Laws from New York University, where she was awarded the George Colin Award. Devika graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours. She served as an Associate to Justice Kenneth Hayne at the High Court of Australia, and as judicial clerk at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. She was formerly a lecturer at the University of New South Wales and Director of the international law project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW. Her book on the Power of Process was published by Oxford University Press in 2016. She is a member of EJIL's Editorial Board.
Recently Published
Reforming the World in Our Own Image: A Critique of Liberal Constitutionalism
January 11, 2019
Devika Hovell
Over the contest hovers, as in all ages, a concept of society formulated and fostered by intellectuals. This is not a reflection of reality, but a goal and hope of good men. P.E.Corbett, Law and Society in the Relations of States (1951) The conviction in a linear teleology of progress is fundamental…
The ‘Mistrial’ of Kumar Lama: Problematizing Universal Jurisdiction
April 6, 2017
Devika Hovell
‘We know the grave can cry out after 50 years’. Kumar Lama, a colonel in the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA), sat in his hut in Gorusinghe Barracks opposite Amnesty official Daniel Alderman in May 2005. The Amnesty visit was prompted by on-going reports of serious human rights violations in the course of the people’s war between the CPN…
A House of Kadis? Recent Challenges to the UN Sanctions Regime and the Continuing Response to the ECJ Decision in Kadi
July 7, 2009
Devika Hovell
Devika Hovell is a DPhil Candidate in international law at the University of Oxford, and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. She worked formerly as Director of the International Law Project and Lecturer in International Law at the University of New South Wales. Her doctoral thesis applies a procedural fairness framework to Security Council …
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Popular articles by Devika Hovell
Council at War: Russia, Ukraine and the UN Security Council
February 25, 2022
Devika Hovell
‘It is the responsibility of this body to stop the war’, Ukraine’s representative told the UN Security Council on Wednesday this week. He was interrupted by the current President of the UN Security Council who clarified ‘this isn’t called a war, this is called a special military operation in the Donbas’. In this moment, the Ukrainean representative…
Response to the Letter to the Editors Regarding the Publication of a Symposium based on Papers Presented at an IDF Conference
We are grateful for this letter. It raises important and difficult issues. These are issues that must be identified, aired, discussed, specified and further discussed. This letter has spurred such a process. The symposium that the letter objects to focused on the question of the identification of custom in international humanitarian law. It consisted…
Punishing Sanctions: A Call to Arms Against Fortress America
February 25, 2025
Devika Hovell
Being an international lawyer can sometimes feel like being a librarian in the middle of a riot. You are deeply invested in the idea that there are rules – impeccable legal rules – that, if followed, would make the world a better, more orderly, place. You clutch well-thumbed and thoroughly annotated copies of the Nicaragua case,…