16 February 2021
Since January 2020, Antonio Coco is a Lecturer at the University of Essex’s School of Law, where he teaches a variety of courses on international law.
After his LLM at the Geneva Academy, he started his PhD in International Law at the University of Geneva, which he completed in 2019. In the meanwhile, he had taken up a position as Lecturer in International Law at the University of Oxford, where he taught for two and a half years and maintains a fellowship at the Oxford Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. His current research mostly follows two strands: international law applicable to information and communication technologies, and international criminal law.
The LLM programme at the Geneva Academy has many strengths. Three stood out for me: the programme’s architecture which builds in students an extremely solid foundational knowledge of public international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law; the personal quality of the teachers, who are able to inspire in addition to transmitting knowledge; and the class spirit, animated by the motivation and passion of all the students.
Teaching at the Geneva Academy LLM was among the most effective I have ever experienced. I appreciated, in particular, that most teachers attempted to spark an independent way of thinking in the students, rather than giving them pre-made answers.
The connections between the relevant rules of international law, and the rationale behind them, was constantly highlighted. We were exposed to a way of thinking about international law as a tool for positive social change. In addition, tutorials — led by incredibly skilled and well-prepared teaching assistants — were crucial to contextualize the lectures and exploring the practical application of what we had learned in class.
I have countless special memories of the programme but, if I had to choose one, I would have to choose the class trip to Bosnia. It was an unforgettable bonding experience for us as a class and gave us a chance to speak with people who had directly experienced the war which came up so often in our classes. In incredibly emotional moments, among others, we visited the site of the Srebrenica massacre and portions of the tunnel which allowed people and goods to get in and out of sieged Sarajevo.
The LLM at the Geneva Academy gave me the tools to embark into my PhD, which concerned the defence of mistake of law in international criminal law, and laid the bases for the knowledge which, years later, I shared with my students at Oxford and I am still sharing with my students at Essex.
In addition, the Geneva Academy was my very first academic network and allowed me to get to know scholars and practitioners with whom I have then collaborated after my LLM. In particular, the LLM internship programme allowed me to work for a while at the United Nations International Law Commission and at TRIAL International, giving me an early chance to see international law in action.
I use what I have learned at the Geneva Academy every single day of my professional life. After all, I seamlessly kept researching on and teaching in the same areas which were part of the LLM curriculum. In addition, the teaching style and professionalism of my LLM professors still informs my teaching practice to date.
Wholeheartedly. It was a defining moment not only for my career but for my growth as a person.
Our podcast In and Around War(s) returns for a third season.
Kyryl Savin/Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Discover our resources and what our experts say about the situation in Ukraine, with regular updates to include new events, articles and comments!
OUP
In this book launch our Swiss IHL Chair, Professor Marco Roscini, will discuss the main findings of his new book on the principle of non-intervention with leading experts.
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Participants in this training course, made of two modules, will examine the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights and the environment, familiarizing themselves with the respective implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
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This online short course focuses on the role of public international law in international relations and on international legal persons.
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This project addresses the human rights implications stemming from the development of neurotechnology for commercial, non-therapeutic ends, and is based on a partnership between the Geneva Academy, the Geneva University Neurocentre and the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.
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The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.