Christine Schwöbel-Patel

Professor

Director of CCLS

International Law; International Criminal Law; Global Constitutionalism; International Law and the Green Transition; Critical Pedagogy; Political Economy, Aesthetics, Feminism as Critical Approaches to International Law

School of Law
S2.31, Social Sciences Building
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

024 765 75451

Scholarship

In her research and teaching, Professor Schwöbel-Patel aims to push the discipline of international law to confront new areas of critical enquiry, whether that is in critical approaches to global constitutionalism, critical approaches to international criminal law, or the enabling relationship between capitalism and the green transition. Her critique is informed by a political economy, post-colonial, feminist, and aesthetics lens. With this, Christine reveals the international legal power dynamics and their entanglement with material conditions that influence biases of race, class, and gender.

Professor Schwöbel-Patel has published over 40 peer-reviewed publications, as well as two monographs (Marketing Global Justice, Cambridge University Press 2021 and Global Constitutionalism in International Legal Perspective, Martinus Nijhoff 2011), and two edited collections (Aesthetics and Counter-Aesthetics of International Justice, Counterpress 2024 and Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law, Routledge 2014). She has published in leading journals, including the European Journal of International Law, The Law Teacher, the Journal of International Criminal Justice, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law.

Her current research is supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2023-2024, as a visiting fellow of CRASSH, University of Cambridge, and Darwin College Cambridge), and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (2022-2023, Humboldt University in Berlin). The project, titled 'Legal Pipelines of the Green Transition', concerns extractivism in 'post'-colonial spaces and the international laws that support wealth extraction and concentration. Christine has a particular interest in the DRC as an 'old' frontier, and Greenland as a 'new' frontier of extractivism for the green transition.

To find out more about Christine's research, you can listen to the New Books Network podcast or watch a discussion on Marketing Global Justice on YouTube.

For an overview of her most recent projects, you might be interested in a blog post on Legal Pipelines, the conceptualisation of Rosa Luxemburg's Red Ecology, or a talk at the online Historical Materialism conference. For a look at Christine's collaborative research project on Rosa Luxemburg and International Law, see the project website. An overview of her collaboration on design ethics can be found on the Design Research Society webpage.

Bio

Christine obtained her legal education in Heidelberg, Germany (Staatsexamen, 2005), at City University, London (LLM with specialisation in Human Rights, 2006), King’s College London (PhD, 2010, supervisor: Professor Susan Marks), and BPP law school (GDL, 2010). She also undertook additional competitive international law courses at the University of Oxford and the European University Institute.

Prior to her appointment at Warwick Law School, Christine Schwöbel-Patel held Faculty positions at the University of Liverpool (2011-2018), Leiden University (2010-2011) and Kings' College London (2008-2010).

Christine is Vertrauensdozentin (external academic mentor) at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Berlin. She sits on the editorial committee of Law and Critique.

Various CV highlights:

Professor Schwöbel-Patel is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Fellow (Associated Member) of Darwin College Cambridge.
In 2023-2024, Christine is the recipient of a Leverhulme Fellowship Award to support her work on 'Legal Pipelines of the Green Transition'
In 2022-2023, she was Visiting Professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin, funded by an Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellowship.
Prior to this, she was a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London (2016) and the University of Cambridge (Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, 2013 & 2014).
Christine was awarded the 2014 Outstanding Early Career Researcher award by the University of Liverpool.
In 2009, she was awarded the King's Excellence in Teaching Prize at King's College London.
In 2007, Christine was a EU-sponsored intern at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Publications

'Burgis-Kasthala , Michelle, 'Schw?bel-Patel, Christine, 2022. 'Against coloniality in the international law curriculum : examining decoloniality. The Law Teacher
'Schw?bel-Patel, Christine, 2022. 'The precarious agency of racialised recaptives. London Review of International Law
Schwöbel, Christine, 2018. The 'ideal' victim of international criminal law. European Journal of International Law, 29 (3), pp. 703-724
McAuliffe, Pádraig, Schwöbel, Christine, 2018. Disciplinary matchmaking : critics of international criminal law meet critics of liberal peacebuilding. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 16 (5), pp. 985-1009
Schwobel-Patel, Christine, 2016. Spectacle in international criminal law : the fundraising image of victimhood. London Review of International Law, 4 (2), pp. 247-274
Schwöbel, C. E. J., 2013. The comfort of International Criminal Law. Law and Critique, 24 (2), pp. 169-191
Schwöbel, C. E. J., 2012. Whither the private in global governance?. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 10 (4), pp. 1106-1133
Schwöbel, C. E. J., 2011. The holy trinity of international legal debate. Leiden Journal of International Law, 24 (4), pp. 1035-1056

Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, Hohmann, Jessie, 2024. A monument to E.G. Wakefield : new and historical materialist dialogues for a posthuman international law. In Arvidsson, Matilda; Jones, Emily (eds.), International Law and Posthuman Theory, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, pp. 139-161
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2023. Real (E)State - valuing a nation under imperial rentier capitalism. Feichtner, Isabel; Gordon, Geoff (eds.), Constitutions of Value Law, Governance, and Political Ecology, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2023. The political economy of global constitutionalism. In Lang, Anthony F.; Wiener, Antje (eds.), Handbook on Global Constitutionalism, Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 542-555
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2021. Marketing global justice : the political economy of international criminal law. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA, Cambridge University Press
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2020. Global constitutionalism and the geopolitics of knowledge. In Dann, Philipp; Riegner, Michael; Bönnemann, Maxim (eds.), The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 67-85
'Schw?bel-Patel, Christine, 2020. 'The core crimes of international criminal law. Heller, Kevin; Megret, Frederic; Nouwen, Sarah; Ohlin, Jens; Robinson, Darryl (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law, Oxford University Press
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2019. Insta-scholarship : the self-branding practices of the 'digital humanitarian'. Boer, Lianne; Stolk, Sofia (eds.), Backstage Practices of Transnational Law, London, Routledge
Schwöbel, Christine, 2019. Populism, international law and the end of keep calm and carry on lawyering. In Nijman, J.; Werner, W. (eds.), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2018, Springer, pp. 97-121
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2018. Global constitutionalism and East Asian perspectives in the context of political economy. In Suami, Takao; Peters, Anne; Vanoberbeke, Dimitri; Kumm, Mattias (eds.), Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 100-122
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2017. The political economy of gobal constitutionalism. Lang, Jr., Anthony F.; Wiener, Antje (eds.), Handbook on global constitutionalism, Cheltenham and Camberley, London, UK, Edward Elgar Publishing

Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2023. Locating humanity in crimes against humanity. London Review of International Law, Oxford University Press, pp. 113-123
'Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2022. 'Review of International law and transitional governance : critical perspectives edited by HD De Groof, E. and Wiebusch, M.. Verfassung und Recht in Übersee/WCL, Nomos, pp. 270-273
'Schw?bel-Patel, Christine, 2020. 'Review of Figuring victims in International Criminal Justice : the case of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal by Elander, M.. European Journal of International Law, Oxford University Press, pp. 1597-1603
Schwöbel-Patel, Christine, 2018. Teaching International Law. Oxford University Press

Teaching Projects

Funded

Title	Funder	Award start	Award end
New Frontiers of Extraction: Greenland and the International Law of Imperial Rentier Capitalism	Leverhulme Trust	01 Aug 2023	31 Jul 2024
Making States 'Safe' for Investment: International Criminal Law and Imperial Rentier Capitalism (Humboldt Research Fellowship)	Alexander von Humboldt Foundation	01 Aug 2022	31 Jul 2023

Highlighted

Impact

Public Understanding

Public Lecture

2019: ‘Völkerstrafrechtliche Verbrechen aus Kritischer Perspektive: Der Mythos des Weges “von Nürnberg nach Rom”’ University of Würzburg

Keynote

2014: ‘Marketing Justice and the Commodification of Victims’, Law and Boundaries Conference, Sciences Po, Paris
Op-Eds:
June 2020: ‘Compassionate Consumption: What Is It and Why It Won’t Solve Society’s Problems’, Teen Vogue
April 2020: ‘We Don’t Need A ‘War’ Against Coronavirus. We need Solidarity’, Al Jazeera

Academic Blog contributions

March 2020: ‘A Valuable Image: The Publicity of Global Justice Actors’, part of ‘Constitutions of Value’ symposium, Verfassungsblog
April 2019: ‘Neoliberalism: From Law to Resistance’ Globalists Symposium’, Law and Political Economy blog (invited book discussion)
Feb 2017: ‘International Criminal Court must not ignore threats of an African mass withdrawal’, The Conversation
Oct 2016: ‘The rebranding of the International Criminal Court and why African states are not falling for it’, Opinio Juris
Aug 2015: ‘Nils Christie’s ‘Ideal Victim’ applied: From Lions to Swarms’, Critical Legal Thinking

Research Supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD supervisees. However, please ensure that you have a research proposal which corresponds with the University of Warwick School of Law requirements.

I am particularly interested in supervising postgraduates in international law, international criminal law, international legal theory, critical pedagogy, or global governance. Prospective candidates with project proposals that involve critiques centring on:

political economy
aesthetics
gender
postcolonial/decolonial approaches

Current PhD students:

Perpetua Adar
Esmaeil Alsaghir
Charlotte Higgs
Rosanna Woodhouse
Shajoe Lake

Social Media