Dr Dimitri Van Den MeersscheSenior Lecturer in Law and IHSS FellowEmail: d.vandenmeerssche@qmul.ac.ukTwitter: @Dimitri_VdMProfileTeachingResearchPublicationsSupervisionPublic EngagementProfileDimitri Van Den Meerssche is a Senior Lecturer in Law and Fellow of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) at Queen Mary University of London. His current research studies the impact of new digital technologies on global security governance, with a focus on counterterrorism and border control. He is interested in the forms of inequality and exclusion enacted by practices of algorithmic governance, and how these practices impact political subjectivity and the prospects of collective action. Recent writing focused the inequalities enacted at the virtual border, the phantom publics and value systems of algorithmic governance, and the subject of critique in international law and technology. This work is inspired by critical security studies, feminist technoscience, infrastructure and design theory, and critical black studies. Before joining Queen Mary, Dimitri was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Edinburgh Law School, working on a UKRI Future Leaders Project Infralegalities – Global Security Infrastructures, Artificial Intelligence and International Law (led by Gavin Sullivan). In the context of this project, he is currently co-editing a volume titled Global Governance by Data – Infrastructures of Algorithmic Rule (co-edited with Fleur Johns and Gavin Sullivan and forthcoming with Cambridge University Press). In parallel to his work on international law and technology, Dimitri writes on the changing practices and politics of international law in international organisations. In this field, he recently published his first monograph – The World Bank’s Lawyers: The Life of International Law as Institutional Practice (OUP) wrote about the deformalisation of international institutional law. Dimitri has a strong interest in developing new methodological and (post)critical approaches to international law, around which he is currently co-organising a new lecture series – Underworlds – and has convened a number of symposia (on the multiple materialisms of international law and change, critique and complicity in global governance). Dimitri’s work appeared in multiple edited collections and journals including European Journal of International Law, American Journal of International Law – AJIL Unbound, London Review of International Law, Leiden Journal of International Law, AI & Society, Law and Critique, Human Rights Law Review, Journal of the History of International Law, International Organisations Law Review, Transnational Legal Theory and Law and Development Review. He is a founding committee member of the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology, an Affiliated Fellow at the Institute for International Law and Justice (IILJ) at New York University (NYU), and an Associate Fellow as the T.M.C. Asser Institute, where he previously worked as postdoctoral researcher. Dimitri holds a PhD and an LLM in International Law from the European University Institute, an LLM from NYU as Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) Fellow, and a Master of Laws degree from Ghent University (Summa Cum Laude). In the context of his PhD, Dimitri worked at the World Bank Legal Vice-Presidency and the London School of Economics. Twitter: @Dimitri_VdMUndergraduate Teaching LAW6032 Public International Law Postgraduate Teaching SOLM173 Ethics of Asylum and Migration ResearchDigital technologies / security / infrastructure Dimitri is engaged in three fields of research. His current research and writing primarily focuses on the regulatory effects, violence and inequalities caused by the use of digital technologies in border control and counterterrorism. Dimitri’s work on virtual borders draws on critical AI studies, new materialisms, and insights from infrastructure and design theory to study how forms of governance by data alter legal subjectivity and impact prospects of political collectivity. This is further explored in relation to the phantom publics and value systems of algorithmic governance, and the subject of critique in international law and technology. He also engages with the field of international law and technology more generally: he is currently co-editing a volume on Global Governance by Data (with Fleur Johns and Gavin Sullivan), editing an EJIL book review symposium on international law and technology, and convening the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology. Practice and politics of international organisations law Secondly, Dimitri continues to research the shifting politics of international law as a material practice and professional performance in international organisations. His first monograph – The World Bank’s Lawyers: The Life of International Law as Institutional Practice – draws on actor-network theory and professional sociology to trace these changes within the World Bank. A recent contribution to EJIL traces the deformalisation of international institutional law. His work on international organisations law is forthcoming in various forthcoming books: Ways of Seeing International Organizations: New Perspectives for International Institutional Law (edited by N. Mansouri and D. Quiroga- Villamarín, forthcoming with CUP); The Battle for International Law II: South-North Perspectives on the Neoliberal Era (1975-2000) (edited by P. Dann, S. Ranganathan and J. Von Bernstorff, forthcoming with OUP); and IOs Engaging the World (edited by J. Klabbers, forthcoming with CUP). Methodology and critique Finally, his work seeks to develop new methodological and (post)critical approaches to international law. He is currently convening two symposia – The Multiple Materialisms of International Law and Methodological Perspectives on International Law in the Global South – resulting from an earlier Lecture and Workshop Series on Method, Methodology and Critique in International Law. He is also convening a new series on these themes in collaboration with Queen Mary’s Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS): Underworlds. On the topic of critique and complicity, Dimitri has recently co-convened a special issue for Law and Critique. Works in progress Dimitri is currently working on a number of books, special issues, articles and chapters. Books Global Governance by Data – Infrastructures of Algorithmic Rule (Cambridge University Press Global Law series) (edited with F. Johns and G. Sullivan). Forthcoming Special Issues ‘Methodological Perspectives on International Law in the Global South’ (Leiden Journal of International Law). Invited guest editor for book review symposium on International Law and Technology with the European Journal of International Law. Journal Articles under review ‘An Infrastructural Brussels Effect? The Translation of EU Law into the UK’s Digital Borders’ Computer Law and Security Review (w. G. Sullivan). Journal Articles in draft ‘Chronotopes of Exclusion – The Spatio-Temporality of Europe’s Borders’ European Law Open. Forthcoming book chapters ‘‘The critic is not the one who debunks, but the one who assembles’ – Professional Performances and Material Practices in International Law’, (edited volume by N. Mansour and D. R. Quiroga Villamarín (eds.), Delicate Machines of World Ordering: Alternative Approaches to International Organizations in International Law). ‘The Battles and Beliefs of a (Neo)liberal Legalist – Ibrahim Shihata and the World Bank’s “Crusader Types”’ (edited volume by S. Ranganathan, J. von Bernstorff and P. Dann (eds.), The Battle for International Law II: South-North Perspectives on the Neoliberal Era (1975-2000)). ‘Public-Private Cooperation in Global Security Governance: An Infrastructural Perspective’ (edited volume by J. Klabbers (ed.), International Organizations Engaging the World). PublicationsBooks The World Bank’s Lawyers – The Life of International Law as Institutional Practice (Oxford University Press series on the History and Theory of International Law). Special Issues ‘The Multiple Materialisms of International Law’ (2023) 11 (2) London Review of International Law 197-377. ''New Ways of Seeing Like a State’ – Change, Critique and Complicity in Global Governance’, 33 (3) Law and Critique, 2022 (convened with G. Gordon). Journal Articles ‘The Multiple Materialisms of International Law’ (2023) 11 (2) London Review of International Law 197 – 206. ‘On Phantom Publics, Clusters and Collectives – Be(com)ing Subject in Algorithmic Times’ (2023) AI & Society 1 – 18 (with M-C. Petersmann). ‘The Critical Subject and the Subject of Critique in International Law and Technology’ (2023) 117 American Journal of International Law – AJIL Unbound 134 – 138 (with R. Mignot-Mahdavi and G. Gordon). ‘Deformalizing International Organizations Law – The Risk Appetite of Anne-Marie Leroy’ (2023) 34 (1) European Journal of International Law 141 – 167. ‘Is this the Rhizome? Thinking Together with Fleur Johns’ (2022) 33 (3) Law and Critique 237 – 248 (w. G. Gordon). ‘Virtual Borders – International Law and the Elusive Inequalities of Algorithmic Association’ (2022) 33 (1) European Journal of International Law 171 – 204. ‘A Legal Black Hole in the Cosmos of Virtue – The Politics of Human Rights Critique against the World Bank’ (2021) 21 (1) Human Rights Law Review 80 – 107. ‘‘There was an idealism that this information is useful’ – The Origins and Evolution of the NYIL’ (2020) 50 Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 239 – 252 (w. O. Spijkers). ‘‘A New Normative Architecture’ – Risk and Resilience as Routines of Un-governance’ (2020) 11 (3) Transnational Legal Theory (TLT) 267 – 299 (w. G. Gordon). ‘International Law as Insulation: The Case of the World Bank in the Decolonization Era’ (2019) 21 (4) Journal of the History of International Law 459 – 484. ‘Performing the Rule of Law: Ibrahim Shihata and the World Bank’s Turn to Governance Reform’ (2019) 32 (1) Leiden Journal of International Law 47 – 69. ‘International Organizations and the Performativity of Measuring States: Discipline through Diagnosis’ (2018) 15 (1) International Organisations Law Review 168 – 201. ‘European Perspectives on Constitutional Pluralism(s) – An Ontological Roadmap’ (2018) 9 (1) Transnational Legal Theory 1 – 31. ‘Scholars in Self-Estrangement (again): Rethinking the Law of International Organizations’ (2017) 5 (3) London Review of International Law 455 – 480. ‘The Evolving Mandate of the World Bank: how Constitutional Hermeneutics shaped the Concept and Practice of Rule of Law Reform’ (2017) 10 (1) Law and Development Review 89 – 118. Book Chapters ‘The Contemporary Values of Operadiction Regimes’, in I. Feichtner and G. Gordon (eds.), Law and the Global Constitution of Value: Ecology, Governance and Political Economy (Routledge 2023). ‘World Bank Group’, in C. Binder, J. Hofbauer and P. Janig (eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2022). ‘Accountability in International Organisations: Reviewing the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework’, in E. Scico (ed), Accountability, Transparency and Democracy in the Functioning of Bretton Woods Institutions (Springer, 2017), 157-187. Book Reviews R. Schmidt, Regulatory Integration Across Borders, 31 (4) European Journal of International Law, 2020. Working Papers ‘Virtual Borders – International Law and the Elusive Inequalities of Algorithmic Association’, NYU – IILJ Working Paper Series, 2021-2, 2021. ‘International Law as Insulation – the Case of the World Bank in the Decolonization Era’, Presented at the ESIL Annual Conference Manchester, European Society of International Law – IO-IG Blog, 2018. ‘Redefining Political Interference in the World Bank – A Genealogy of Governance and Rule of Law Reform’, European Society of International Law, 13th Annual Conference & Research Forum, 2017. ‘Exploring Constitutional Pluralism(s): An Ontological Roadmap’, in C. Corradetti and G. Sartor (eds.), Global Constitutionalism without Global Democracy, EUI Working Papers Law 2016/21, 2016.] Varia ‘Failing where it matters most?’ (w. R. Mignot-Mahdavi), Digital Constitutionalist (DigiCon), December 2022. ‘In Gratitude – The Multiple Maps of International Law (and Where They Might Lead Us)’, Völkerrechtsblog, November 2022. Analysis of General Counsel Roberto Dañino’s 2006 Legal Opinion on ‘Human Rights in the Work of the World Bank’ [OXIO Database – Note 215]. ‘Redistribution Through Institutional Design’ Forum TransRegional Studies, September 2017 [Blog Post]. ‘Global Constitutionalism without Global Democracy?’ PluriCourts Blog, February 2016 [Blog Post]. SupervisionDimitri welcomes proposals for postgraduate supervision in the fields of international law, law and technology, global security law and governance, infrastructure studies, international organisations law, human rights law and work engaging with new methodological / (post)critical approaches to international law.Public EngagementMedia/Press ‘Schendt Israël het Genocideverdrag? “De positie die België heeft ingenomen, is van essentieel belang”’, De Morgen, 2024. ‘Waarom een Belgische interventie voor het Internationaal Gerechtshof zinvol is’, De Morgen, 2024. ‘Het Internationaal Gerechtshof Bekijkt of Israël Genocide Pleegt’, Terzake, 2024. ‘In hoeverre is Nederland medeverantwoordelijk voor schendingen oorlogsrecht in Gaza?’, NPO Radio 1, Bureau Buitenland, 2023. ‘Het beleg van Gaza: aan aangekondigde genocide?’, De Morgen, 2023. ‘Hightech bewaakt Europese buitengrenzen: “We behandelen migranten als proefkonijnen”’, Knack, 2023. ‘De ingebeelde gemeenschap van Mark Elchardus’, SamPol, 2021 (with J. Versieren and P. Debruyne). ‘Voer kritisch maatschappelijk debat over grenzen van digitale controle’, Het Parool, March 2020. ‘Aung San Suu Kyi to defend Myanmar before the ICJ’, Asser, December 2019. ‘Aung San Suu Kyi Appelée à ‘cesser le génocide rohingya’ au Myanmar’, Le Devoir, December 2019. ‘Five Questions on the ICJ and Genocide’, Dawn, December 2019. ‘UN court’s emergency measures in Rohingya case’, Deccan Herald, January 2020. ‘Top UN judges set to rule on Chagos islands dispute’, Interview with Agence France-Presse, cited in France 24, Channel NewsAsia, The Sun Daily, February 2019. ‘La CIJ rend son avis sur l’archipel des Chagos’, Interview with Agence France-Presse, cited in Euronews, La Croix, Libération, Le Point, Médias24, Journal du Senegal, February 2019. Public engagement ‘Failing where it matters most?’ (w. R. Mignot-Mahdavi), Digital Constitutionalist (DigiCon), December 2022. Input to Report on Race, Borders, and Digital Technologies by UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (Tendayi Achiume) Cited in A/HRC/48/76: Racial and Xenophobic discrimination and the use of digital technologies in border and immigration enforcement – Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (Tendayi Achiume), September 2021. Interviews ‘‘The Time has Come for International Regulation on Artificial Intelligence’ – An Interview with Andrew Murray’, OpinioJuris, November 2020. ‘Use international norms and dispute settlement to promote racial justice in the US’ – An Interview with Nawi Ukabiala, Asser Institute, July 2020. ‘‘I Want to Put the Social Question Back on the Table’ – An Interview with Anne Orford’, OpinioJuris, November 2019 (with A. Duval and T. Woodcock) ‘Martti Koskenniemi on International Law and the Far-Right’, OpinioJuris, December 2018. Related newsRecent application for International Criminal Court arrest warrants 30 May 2024 Queen Mary School of Law hosts conference on Law, Society, and Inequality for PhD Scholars 4 July 2023