A. (Mando) Rachovitsa, PhD

I research in the areas of international law, human rights law and international technology law.

International law & International Human Rights Law

I write on interpretational and jurisdictional issues before international courts with a keen eye on comparing the practice of different international courts. I am particularly interested in African human rights law and the case law of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Relevant publications:

• Rachovitsa, ‘The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Judicial Function in Default Judgments: The Developments Set Forth in the Léon Mugesera case’ 2023 African Human Rights Law Yearbook (6,000 words)
• Rachovitsa, ‘Duties of the Individual in International Human Rights Law’, in Henrard & Duin (eds), Research Handbook on Accountability for Human Rights Violations (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2023)
• Rachovitsa, ‘Léon Mugesera: A Convicted Genocidaire, Seeks Justice before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Court’s Judicial Function in Default Judgments’ 2022 Harvard Human Rights Journal (online)
• Rachovitsa, ‘Teaching and (Un)learning International Law in Qatar’, in Gauci & Sander (eds) Teaching International Law (forthcoming 2022)
• Rachovitsa, ‘The African Human Rights System’, in González-Hauck, Kunz & Milas (eds), Public International Law - An Open Textbook (forthcoming 2022)
• Rachovitsa, ‘The Asian Human Rights System’, in González-Hauck, Kunz & Milas (eds), Public International Law - An Open Textbook (forthcoming 2022)
• Rachovitsa, ‘The Arab and Islamic Human Rights System’, in González-Hauck, Kunz & Milas (eds), Public International Law - An Open Textbook (forthcoming 2022)
• Rachovitsa, ‘Interactions Within International Law’, in González-Hauck, Kunz & Milas (eds), Public International Law - An Open Textbook (in progress 2022)
• Rachovitsa, ‘Designing for the Best Composition of International Courts: The Value of Diverse and Specialised International Law Expertise on the Bench’, in Brabandere (ed), International Procedure in Interstate Litigation & Arbitration: A Comparative Approach (CUP, 2021) 89-112
• Rachovitsa, ‘Balancing test (ACtHPR)’, Max Planck Encyclopaedia of International Procedural Law (10,500 words)
• Rachovitsa, ‘On New “Judicial Animals”: The Curious Case of an African Court with Material Jurisdiction of Global Scope’ (2019) 19 Human Rights Law Review 255-289
• Rachovitsa, ‘The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: A Uniquely Equipped Testbed for (the Limits of) Human Rights Integration?’, in Bribosia & Rorive (eds), Human Rights Tectonics: Global Dynamics of Integration and Fragmentation (Intersentia, 2018) pp. 69-88
• Rachovitsa, ‘The Principle of Systemic Integration in Human Rights Law’ (2017) 66 International & Comparative Law Quarterly 557-588
• Rachovitsa, ‘Treaty Clauses and Fragmentation of International Law: Applying the More Favourable Protection Clause in Human Rights Treaties’ (2016) 16 Human Rights Law Review 77-101
• Rachovitsa, ‘On the Sidelines of the Failed Coup d’ État in Turkey: Can Greece Extradite the Eight Turkish Military Officers to Turkey?’ [2016] European Human Rights Law Review 645-655
• Rachovitsa, ‘Fragmentation of International Law Revisited: Insights, Good Practices and Lessons to be Learned from the Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights’ (2015) 28 Leiden Journal of International Law 863-885

Within the area of international technology law, I have written on the following topics:

• human rights-based design and implementation of AI decision-making
• international law & cybersecurity standards
• human rights assessment of the use of new technologies, including issues of encryption, and digital ID systems
• how international law-like standards are created and used to assess the legality and legitimacy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) work in the domain names’ spacehow human rights law may inform the design of Internet standards

I am currently working on the project “Making the hidden visible: Co-designing for public values in standards-making and governance” funded by the Dutch Research Council investigating the role of public values in the design of cybersecurity policy norms and standards for IoT.

 Relevant publications:

• Rachovitsa & Johann, ‘The Use of AI in the Digital Welfare State and Lessons Learned from the SyRI Case’ (2022) 22 Human Rights Law Review 1-15
• Rachovitsa & Stoice, ‘International Law in Cyberspace’, in González-Hauck, Kunz & Milas (eds), Public International Law - An Open Textbook (in progress 2022)
• Rachovitsa, ‘International Law and the Global Public Interest - ICANN’s Independent Objector as a Mechanism of Responsive Global Governance’, in Summers & Gough (eds), Non-State Actors and International Obligations – Creation, Evolution and Enforcement (BRILL, 2018) 342-368
• Rachovitsa, ‘General Principles of Public Order and Morality and the Domain Name System: Whither International Law?’ (2016) 63 Netherlands International Law Review 23-49
• Rachovitsa, ‘Rethinking Privacy Online and Human Rights: The Internet’s Standardisation Bodies as the Guardians of Privacy Online in the Face of Mass Surveillance’, European Society of International Law, Binder et al (eds), Conference Paper Series 7, Conference Paper No. 5/2016 (2016 ESIL Research Forum - Istanbul) (16,500 words)
• Rachovitsa, ‘Engineering and Lawyering Privacy by Design: Understanding Online Privacy both as a Technical and an International Human Rights Issue in the Face of Mass Surveillance’ (2016) 24 International Journal of Law & Information Technology 374-399