This term we welcome new staff members to our law school. Join us for our Welcome Interviews and get to know our newest members of faculty.
We are delighted to welcome Yusra Suedi as a Fellow to LSE Law School. Now that the first few weeks of Michaelmas Term are under our belts, we have taken a moment to catch up with Yusra and find out more about her work.
Hello Yusra, thank you for your time! Could you tell us about your education and career before joining LSE Law School?
I obtained my undergraduate degree in Swiss law from the University of Geneva in 2012. I wasn’t a fan of any of the courses except Public International Law, and hurried to specialise in this with a Master of Laws from the same university, as well as an LLM from the University of London (Queen Mary & UCL jointly). I completed both simultaneously across two years. During the first year, I also ran an NGO in partnership with the United Nations that organised educational events for youth, and interned at the UN in Geneva in the summer. During the second year, I started working for the International Law Commission (where I would stay for four more years). Following my two Master’s, I pitched a course (with some colleagues from the NGO I formerly ran) about the inner functioning of the United Nations to the University of Geneva, which I was then hired to teach. Ever passionate about Public International Law, I enrolled for a PhD to complete while teaching this self-designed course in English and French. During my PhD years I also had the chance to work at the International Court of Justice, and the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal. But by the end my PhD, academia had won my heart, and I was lucky to be accepted as an LSE Fellow!
What is your key area of research expertise and what drew you to the field?
I have always been passionate about social justice and international affairs. Public International Law, which addressed such interests, naturally drew me in. As a humanist I have always had a penchant for human rights and how legal systems can empower people. On the other hand, my pragmatic hands-on nature (and professional experiences) led me to gravitate towards the study of international courts and tribunals. My research is therefore situated at the nexus of these two fields in international law. At the LSE I will be advancing my research agenda entitled ‘Public Interest Litigation in International Law’, where I assess the degree to which international courts and tribunals can respond to new substantive and procedural challenges relating to public interest litigation. I have a few projects up my sleeve ranging from events to books and articles. I’m very excited about it!
Do you have a piece of work that you are most proud of so far? Or a highlight of your career to date?
By far my PhD is my greatest pride to date. Entitled ‘The Individual in the Law and Practice of the International Court of Justice’, it assesses the degree to which the Court integrates concerned individuals in its procedure and considers them in its judicial reasoning. I really believe in it, and hope it can contribute to important conversations about the role of judges and the place of people in in interstate disputes and in international law at large. I worked on it for five years, including a year spent at the International Court of Justice where I was privileged to exchange views on my research with judges and staff members. I hope that you will soon have access to it in your university library!
What has your experience been with education and research in an online environment over the last year or so? What have you drawn from the experience?
There were definitely some perks to teaching online – I memorised students’ names much faster by seeing them on my screen all the time, for example! But online teaching made me value in-person teaching a lot more. I missed some of the little things that only an in-person experience can provide: the jovial chatter that fills the classroom with warmth before the beginning of a class, the occasional (pitying) chuckle at my (often corny) jokes, and feeding off students’ energy in the room. I’m very grateful that technology has allowed us to keep educating and learning, but I now value more than ever the human experience of teaching that made me fall in love with it in the first place.
Our professional focus this year will no doubt be to continue to deliver exceptional teaching and learning against the backdrop of COVID-19, but do you have any other exciting projects in the pipeline?
Yes! I’m co-organising a two-day workshop in November 2021 entitled ‘The potential of public interest litigation in international law’, to be held at the University of Exeter. We received a grant from the Universities of Exeter and Geneva to carry out the project, and I’m really looking forward to having scholars from across the world discuss different aspects of my current research agenda. An edited collection will ensue from the workshop, which I’m looking forward to as well. I’m also currently turning my PhD manuscript into a book. And work aside, I’ve recently moved to London and am having fun exploring everything this magical city has to offer!
And finally, what are you looking forward to the most about being part of LSE Law School?
It’s hard to name just one thing! The LSE Law School harbours some of the most respected scholars in Public International Law, many of which I am excited (and slightly nervous) to meet! I’m also really looking forward to teaching in a new environment and getting to know new batches of students from different parts of the world. I hope the next two years don’t go by too quickly!
You can follow Yusra on Twitter here.
Join us next week for a chat with Dr Stavros Makris, our second interview in the Welcome Interviews series.