LL.M. in International Law - Graduate Institute, Geneva

🥂 A wonderful evening to celebrate the end of the academic year with our LLM community!
Students, alumni, professors, ILC members, and legal clinic partners came together to reconnect, share experiences, and celebrate an intense but rewarding year. A perfect reminder of the strength and spirit of our programme.
✨ Here’s to a well-deserved summer break!

Inside Look at Our 2026 Legal Clinic Presentations!

Like every year, our LL.M. students worked on topics assigned by our partner organizations. Through mapping exercises, data analysis, and the review of legal documents, case law, and policy materials, they conducted in-depth research on some of the most pressing and timely issues facing the international community today. The projects addressed current legal and policy challenges that are actively shaping debates at the global level.

The Legal Clinics are a major feature of the program, combining theoretical legal education with practical, hands-on experience. By engaging directly with real-world challenges faced by our partners, students develop advanced research, analytical, and policy-writing skills while making meaningful contributions to ongoing policy discussions.

Congratulations to all our students for the outstanding work they have produced this year and a huge thank you to our partners for this collaboration!

🌍 Welcoming Back an ILC Member and Alumna to the LL.M. Programme

The Geneva Graduate Institute LL.M. Programme was absolutely delighted to welcome back Professor Patrícia Galvão Teles to the Institute over the preceding weeks. As an esteemed alumna of the Institute and a current member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC), Professor Galvão Teles returned to deliver an intensive and highly impactful course on the ‘International Law of Responsibility’.
Our students had the unique privilege of learning directly from a leading practitioner, shaping the codification and progressive development of international law today.

⚖️ During her lecture series, Professor Galvão Teles guided students through the intricate mechanics of the ILC’s Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA). Starting with the foundations, she expertly navigated us through technical aspects such as attribution and causation and finally ended with a brief discussion on the political dimensions of the recent adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution backing the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change.
Additionally, student presentations on recent or ongoing ICJ cases brought textbook theory into sharp, real-world focus.

In between the heavy duty class discussions, Professor Galvão Teles regaled us with stories and anecdotes about Professor Georges Abi-Saab from her ‘PhD’ days, and the deeply missed Professor James Crawford.

💐 A warm thank you to Professor Galvão Teles for her continued dedication to nurturing the next generation of international lawyers here in Geneva. We look forward to her next return!


Institute HigherEducation AlumniExcellence

We are proud of our LL.M students who engage in many activities at the Geneva Graduate Institute such as Ocean governance and the Law of the Sea Seminar’s activities:

Are we drowning in plastic? With 5.25 trillion pieces of debris floating in our oceans and microplastics entering human tissue, the crisis is everywhere. But can international trade actually fix it? In Episode 4, host Katie B. our LL.M student sits down with Dr Daniel Ramos (WTO Legal Officer & TESSD Secretary) to discuss how the World Trade Organisation’s Dialogue on Plastics Pollution (DPP) is weaponising global trade policy to fight plastic waste. Discover why trade is the ultimate lever for real environmental change, even as global treaty talks stall.

Listen now on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dmMxXF_a

Legal clinic publication!

Proud to recognize the outstanding contribution of three students from the LL.M. in International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute to the research process behind the IISD report Unpacking National Investment Laws: Dispute Settlement Function.

Through the framework of Legal Clinic,
👏 Gabriel Alencar Rolim França Pinto
👏 Priscilla Kanukwa Waithaka
👏 Shruti Maheshwari
provided dedicated legal research and analytical support under the supervision of Prof. Fuad Zarbiyev. Their work contributed to advancing discussions on investment law and sustainable development policy.

Their contribution was also recognized during a webinar jointly conducted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on 8 May, where the report and its findings were discussed with a broader international audience.

Legal Clinics are a unique opportunity within the LL.M. curriculum, allowing students to engage directly with real-world legal and policy work alongside leading international organizations and experts.

Last week we concluded the course Jurisdiction of States in International Law, taught by Professor Mamadou Hebie of Leiden University and graduate of Geneva Graduate Institute, a strong and leading voice in general public international law.

In a stimulating and engaging environment, our students examined the most pertinent aspects of state jurisdiction, its historical developments, and current state of operation, among which the legal questions of international sanctions are a central issue.

Subsequently, the course concluded on a challenging and productive exercise in practical application of the law of state jurisdiction to a live scenario, enabling our students to put their learnings to operation.

LL.M International Law Careers Workshop Earlier this week, we were delighted to welcome back Dr. Michele Potesta for a career workshop on navigating the complexities of the fast paced and extremely competitive landscape of International Law firms, both in Geneva and beyond. Dr. Potestà is a partner at Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, where he specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration, as well as public international law. As a valued member of our teaching faculty, he delivers popular courses on investment and commercial arbitration and related topics, both at our LL.M. and the MIDS Programme.

In his talk, Dr. Potesta touched upon a variety of topics and questions ranging from how to craft an engaging cover letter to balancing both academic and practitioner roles in the International dispute settlement sphere, while keeping it very real and pragmatic. He stressed upon the importance of broadening one’s career horizon, of remaining hungry and open to opportunities to learn on the job, of putting in the hard work and being thorough and precise, and of remaining humble while building one’s skillset. We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Potesta for generously sharing his personal and professional insights and his time, which is understandably in short supply!

We also thank our LL.M. Director, Professor Fuad Zarbiyev for his perceptive reflections and suggestions, especially the significance of discerning the distinction between ‘Knowing that’ to ‘Knowing how’ - in other words, the relatively easy exercise of knowing facts or law but the comparatively difficult exercise of knowing how to reason and apply the law.

We are certain the LL.M. cohort found the workshop inspiring and useful, with much to reflect on.

LL.M International Law Careers Workshop Earlier this week, we were delighted to welcome back Dr. Michele Potesta for a career workshop on navigating the complexities of the fast paced and extremely competitive landscape of International Law firms, both in Geneva and beyond. Dr. Potestà is a partner at Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, where he specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration, as well as public international law. As a valued member of our teaching faculty, he delivers popular courses on investment and commercial arbitration and related topics, both at our LL.M. and the MIDS Programme.

In his talk, Dr. Potesta touched upon a variety of topics and questions ranging from how to craft an engaging cover letter to balancing both academic and practitioner roles in the International dispute settlement sphere, while keeping it very real and pragmatic. He stressed upon the importance of broadening one’s career horizon, of remaining hungry and open to opportunities to learn on the job, of putting in the hard work and being thorough and precise, and of remaining humble while building one’s skillset. We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Potesta for generously sharing his personal and professional insights and his time, which is understandably in short supply!

We also thank our LL.M. Director, Professor Fuad Zarbiyev for his perceptive reflections and suggestions, especially the significance of discerning the distinction between ‘Knowing that’ to ‘Knowing how’ - in other words, the relatively easy exercise of knowing facts or law but the comparatively difficult exercise of knowing how to reason and apply the law.

We are certain the LL.M. cohort found the workshop inspiring and useful, with much to reflect on.