BLC LLB (Pret) LLM (Connecticut) PhD (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
 Home Department: Public Law

Dire Tladi is a professor of international law in the Department of Public of Law and a Fellow at the Institute of Comparative and International Law in Africa of the University of Pretoria. He is also NRF SARChI Chair for International Constitutional Law. 

He is a member of the UN International Law Commission and its Special Rapporteur on Peremptory Norm of General International Law (Jus Cogens).  He is also a member of the Institut de Droit International. Professor Tladi currently serves as the President of the South African Branch of the International Law Association.

He was formerly a Principal State Law Adviser for International Law in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and the legal advisor of the South African Mission to the United Nations in New York, including during South Africa’s second spell on the UN Security Council.  He also served as Special Adviser to the South African Foreign Minister.

He has appeared as counsel before the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial and Appeals Chambers.

Dire Tladi has held visiting professorships and fellows at Kobe University, Humboldt University in Berlin and University of California Irvine. He is two-time recipient of the Fulbright scholarship.

In addition to teaching at the University of Pretoria, Tladi also presents lectures at the UN regional courses on international law for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia.

 Areas of interest: Public International Law

 

Selected Publications

The Trialogues on War and Peace: Vol I Use of Force Against Non-State Actors O’Connell, Tams and Tladi (series editors: Anne Peters and Christian Marxsen)(Cambridge, 2019)

Published in recent years

Books

Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Disquisitions and Disputations (Brill, 2021, forthcoming)

The Trialogues on War and Peace: Vol I Use of Force Against Non-State Actors O’Connell, Tams and Tladi (series editors: Anne Peters and Christian Marxsen)(Cambridge, 2019)

Duagrd’s International Law: A South African Perspective (Juta, 2018) (With J Dugard, M du Plessis and T Maluwa)

The Pursuit of a Brave New World in International Law: Essays in Honour of John Dugard (Brill 2017) (with Maluwa and du Plessis)

Chapters in books

‘The Authority and Membership of the Commission: Concluding Remarks’ in United Nations (ed.) Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future (Brill, 2020)

‘The Duty not Intervene in Matters within Domestic Jurisdiction’ in Jorge Vinuales The UN Friendly Relations Declaration at 50: An Assessment of the Fundamental Principles of International Law (Cambridge, 2020)

‘Article 46A Bis: Beyond the Rhetoric’ in Charles Jalloh, Kamari Clarke and Vincent Nmehielle (eds.) The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights: Development and Challenges (Cambridge, 2019)

‘Article 46 L: Promoting an Effective Cooperation Regime’ in Charles Jalloh, Kamari Clarke and Vincent Nmehielle (eds) The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights: Development and Challenges (Cambridge, 2019)

‘South Africa and the International Criminal Court’ (Chapter 1c) South African Foreign Policy Review: Foreign  Policy, Change and the Zuma Years

‘South African Foreign Policy and the Justice-Peace’ in Lesley Masters and Jo Ansie van Wyk (eds) South African Foreign Policy Review: Vol 3 (2019)

‘The Intervention in Côte d’Ivoire’ in Tom Ruys and Olivier Cortern (eds) International Law and the Use of Force: A Case-Based Approach (OUP, 2018)

‘The Principles of Sustainable Development in the Case Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay’ in Cordonier Segger (with Weeramantry) (eds) Sustainable Development Principles in the Decisions of International Courts and Tribunals: 1992-2012 (Routledge, 2017), 242-254

‘Pursuing a Brave New World for the Oceans: The Place of the Common Heritage of Mankind in a Proposed Law of the Treaty’ in Maluwa, du Plessis and Tladi The Pursuit of a Brave New World in International Law: Essays in Honour of John Dugard (Brill, 2017) 87 – 113

‘Presence of the Accused, Right or Duty? The Art of Interpretation in a Tense Political Climate’ in Jalloh and Bantekas (eds) The International Criminal Court and Africa (OUP, 2017)

‘Interpretation of Protection of Civilian Mandates in United Nations Security Council Resolutions’ in Kuwali and Viljoen (eds.) By All Means Necessary: Protecting Civilians and Preventing Mass Atrocities in Africa (PULP, 2017)

‘Immunities (Article 46 A Bis)’ in Werle and Vormbaum (eds) The African Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Malabo Protocol (Asser, 2017) 203 – 217

‘Reflections on Advising the South African Government on International Law’ in Zidar and Gauci (eds) The Role of Legal Advisers in International Law (Brill, 2017)167-178

‘Interpretation of Treaties in an International Law-Friendly Framework: The Case of South Africa’ in Aust and Nolte (eds) The Interpretation of International Law by Domestic Courts: Uniformity, Diversity, Convergence (OUP, 2016) 135-152

‘Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Towards an Implementing Agreement’ in Rayfuse (ed) Research Handbook in Marine Environmental Law (2015, Routledge)

‘The United Nations Charter and the South African Legal Order’ in de Wet and Hestermeyer (eds) The Implementation of International Law in Germany and South Africa (PULP, 2015) 88-111

Articles

‘The International Law Commission’s Draft Conclusions on Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Making Wine out of Water or More Water than Wine’ (2020) 89 Nordic Journal of International Law

‘The Constitutional Court’s Judgment in the SADC Tribunal Case: International Law Continues to Befuddle’ (2020) 10 Constitutional Court Review 129

‘Populisms Attack on Multilateralism and International Law: Much Ado About Nothing’ (2020) Chinese Journal of International Law https://doi.org/10.1093/chinesejil/jmaa028

‘The Use of Force against Syria in Response to Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons by Syria: A Return to Humanitarian Intervention? (2019) 79 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 205

‘Codification, Progressive Development, New Law, Doctrine, and the Work of the International Law Commission on Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Personal Reflections of the Special Rapporteur’ (2019) 13 Florida International University Law Review 1189

‘An Institutional Framework for Addressing Marine Genetic Resources under the Proposed Treaty for Marine Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction” (2019) 19 International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 485

‘The International Law Commission’s Recent Work on Exceptions to Immunities: Charting a Brave New Course for International Law?’ (2019) Leiden Journal of International Law 169

‘The interpretation and identification of international law in South African” (2018) 135 South African Law Journal 708

‘Of Heroes and Villains, Angels and Demons: The ICC-AU Tension Revisited” (2017) German Yearbook of International Law 43

‘The International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters: Codification, Progressive Development or Creation of Law from Thin Air?’ (2017) 16 Chinese Journal of International Law 425

‘Immunities, Crimes against Humanity and Other Topics in the Sixty-Ninth Session of the International Law Commission’ (2017) South African Yearbook of International Law

(with Aniel de Beer) “The Prohibition of Terrorism as a Norm of Jus Cogens’ (2017) South African Yearbook of International Law

‘Interpretation and International Law in South African Courts: The Supreme Court of Appeal and the Al Bashir Saga’ (2016) 16 African Human Rights Law Journal 310

‘The Duty on South Africa to Arrest and Surrender President Al Bashir under South African and International Law’ (2016) 13 Journal of International Criminal Justice 1027

‘Progressively Developing and Codifying International Law: The Work of the International Law Commission in its Sixty-Eighth Session’ (2016) 41 South African Yearbook of International Law 165

‘Assessing the Legality of Coalition Air Strikes Targeting Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria under International Law’ (2015) South African Yearbook of International Law 281

‘The Proposed Implementing Agreement: Options for Coherence and Consistency in the Establishment of Marine Protected Areas’ (2015) 30 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 654

‘Progressively Developing and Codifying International Law: The Work of the International Law Commission at Sixty-Seventh Session’ (2015) 40 South African Yearbook of International Law 205

‘National Commissioner of the South African Police Service v Southern African Human Rights Litigation Centre (Sup Ct App S Afr) – Introductory Note’ (2015) 54 International Legal Materials 152

‘Immunity in the Era of “Criminalisation”: The African Union, the ICC and International Law’ (2015) 58 Japanese Yearbook of International Law 17

‘The Common Heritage of Mankind and the Proposed Treaty on Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction’ (2014) 25 Yearbook of International Environmental Law 113

‘The Immunity Provisions in the AU Amendment Protocol: Separating the (Doctrinal) Wheat from the Normative (Chaff)’ (2015) 13 Journal of International Criminal Justice 3

Fiction

 Blood in the Sand of Justice (2013) 

 

Doctoral students currently registered with Dire Tladi

Ahmed Linga
Interpretation of treaties and the unity of international law: The case of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court

Leonardus Gerber
Contributions of the International Seabed Authority to International Law with particular reference to the development of a deep seabed mining law regime

Doris Uwicyeza
The realisation of complementarity in the Malabo Protocol

Madila Ngoai
The triangular relationship between the United Nations Security Council, the International Criminal Court and the African Union through the lens of cooperation: the implications for international criminal justice

Ron van Diermen
The attitude of Africa towards International Criminal Court prior and post Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973 (2011). Is Africa having a case in contemplating the mass withdrawal from the Rome Statue of 2002?

Brenda Akia
Command Responsibility for Sexual Violence Crimes under International Criminal Law

Caroline Shilaho
The role of state parties to the Rome statute in the interpretation of the Rome statute: an evaluation of past practice and future prospects

Melville Jacobs
The Responsibility to Protect as a Prism Through which to Assess the Consequences of Non-cooperation with the International Criminal Court under General International Law

NgoziChukwuka Vivien Gbandi
International Constitutionalism of Climate Justice: An Emerging Global Environmental Peremptory Norms.

Mary-Ann Getliffe
The conflicts in respect of transboundary aquifer use in Africa

Siqhamo Ntola

Yasmin Luhandjula

Noluthando Ncame


Doctoral graduates supervised

Laura Ausserladscheider Jonas
Accountability for the financing of entities involved in the commission of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide: An evaluation of the rules of international law for the determination of liability for aiding and abetting in the commission of crimes punishable in the jurisprudence of international courts.

Kobina Daniel
Head of state immunity under the Malabo protocol

Milton Owuor
 The International Criminal Court and positive complementarity: Legal and institutional framework

Aniel de Beer
Peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens) and the prohibition of terrorism

Yolandi Meyer
International law and the responsibility of multinational corporations for environmental and human rights abuses in the extractive industries in Africa

 


[last updated: 08 March 2021]