Guglielmo Verdirame

Guglielmo Verdirame QC (born in Reggio di Calabria, Italy) is a Professor of International Law at King's College London in the Department of War Studies and the School of Law. He was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, a university lecturer in law at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School, and a Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School. He completed his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2001 with a PhD thesis entitled "UN accountability for violations of human rights".[1] He completed his secondary schooling at the United World College of the Adriatic.

He practises as a barrister at 20 Essex Street Chambers and was appointed Queen's Counsel in January 2019.[2]

Verdirame conducted empirical research on international organisations and refugee protection, which formed the basis of a series of articles and the book "Rights in Exile: Janus-faced Humanitarianism",[3] which he co-authored with Barbara Harrell-Bond, an anthropologist whose "Imposing Aid" (1986) was a pioneering critique of international institutions and humanitarianism. While still relying on the earlier socio-legal and empirical research, Verdirame's "The UN and Human Rights: Who Guards the Guardians?"[4] (2011) offers a predominantly doctrinal analysis of the accountability and responsibility of the UN.

In addition to the law of international organisation, Verdirame has written extensively on the use of force, the laws of war, trade and investment, international criminal law, and the philosophy of international law.

Since 2006, Verdirame has been in practice at the Bar specialising in public international law. His practice includes both commercial (e.g. investment arbitration) and more mainstream aspects of international law (e.g. inter-state disputes, immunity, human rights). He formed part of the UK Government legal team in Miller v. Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (2017) 'the Article 50 case' at the Supreme Court, and was counsel for the United Kingdom at the International Court of Justice [Obligations concerning Negotiations relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament (Marshall Islands v. United Kingdom)]. He was also instructed] by Leigh Day on behalf of The United Nations special rapporteur in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court case Shamima Begum v. Secretary of State for the Home Department.[5]

Verdirame was a support of Brexit, co-authoring a proposal with Sir Richard Aikens and Professor George Yarrow for Britain to remain in the European Economic Area.[6]