Matthew Parish

For the British former Conservative MP and journalist see Matthew Parris.

For the Australian rugby league player and coach see Matt Parish.

Matthew Parish

Matthew Parish is a lawyer and scholar of international relations, ethnic conflict and civil war, and a former UN peacekeeper. He is known for his writings about the politics of the western Balkans and his critiques of the international community's role in securing peace in the region, as well as his commentaries on frozen conflicts in Eastern Europe and ethno-religious disputes in the Middle East.

He has written and spoken on civil wars, post-conflict development, and international security policy issues across the globe. He has published over 150 articles, and his writings have been the subject of widespread commentary in the national and international press. He is also a well-known lawyer within Switzerland, his adoptive country, and the law firm he founded, the Gentium Law Group, has been named by Global Arbitration Review^[1] as one of the top one hundred law firms worldwide in its field.

Matthew Parish was a key supporter of and Chief International Political Advisor to Vuk Jeremić in his campaign to be the next UN Secretary General 2016 United Nations Secretary-General selection, who after intense debate and negotiation rose to be the second-ranked candidate overall in the process, coming just behind Antonio Guterres in the UN Security Council's deliberations. Subsequently Parish extended his congratulations support to Guterres. Parish gives frequent interviews and commentaries about UN effectiveness, accountability and reform. One Swiss lawyer described him as "the most colorful lawyer in Swiss legal practise".

The GAR 100 is a guide to the international arbitration capabilities of law firms.

Career

Parish is an international lawyer, the Managing Partner of Gentium Law Group ^[2] an international arbitration practice with offices in Ankara, Fribourg, Geneva, Istanbul, London and Moscow. He was formerly Chief Legal Adviser to the International Supervisor of Brčko District, a region of northern Bosnia and Herzegovina run as a protectorate by the US Government since 1997. He previously worked in the legal department of the World Bank. He is an English barrister, a member of the Swiss bar and a New York attorney, and teaches at the University of Geneva. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Leicester in comparative civil law and common law systems of litigation. Parish was elected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2013^[3] and has also been named as one of the 300 most influential people in Switzerland by Bilan Magazine.^[4]

In May 2012 it was reported that Parish was representing the Serbian businessman Stanko Subotic in a libel action in London's High Court.^[5][6] He is also reported as having represented a number of governments, including Turkey and Tajikistan. He is believed to be active in representing commodities trading companies and also Gulf monarchies in their litigation interests. He is described in one legal journal as "the quintessential political lawyer", and he is one of the most widely cited lawyers in the international media and academic journals. In Geneva he is known for having taken on a series of high profile cases relating to UN and public corruption and misconduct, and is an outspoken advocate of UN accountability and reform. Parish is an outspoken advocate of the rights of lesbian gay bisexual and transgender persons in the practice of law and in the United Nations.

Writings on Balkan politics

Shortly after leaving Bosnia in 2007, Parish wrote "The Demise of the Dayton Protectorate",^[7] which became front page news in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[8][9] The piece predicted that the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the country's post-war governor, would soon collapse. This article subsequently became cited in the state-building literature,^[10][11][12] and was said to be a catalyst for disintegration of the country's international governing structure.^[13] Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated half of the country, relied upon the article to argue for closure of OHR.^[14][15]

Parish has written a commentary on the 22 July 2010 decision of the International Court of Justice declaring Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence to be lawful.^[16] He expresses the view that while Kosovo's independence was inevitable, judicial determination of the issue was unsatisfactory as a matter of policy.

Parish's book on reconstruction in post-war Bosnia, "A Free City in the Balkans",^[17] has attracted domestic and international attention.^[18] The book has been described as "telling the story of the successes wrought by innovative policy and the dangers of premature disengagement" and a "damning critique of the role and the actions of the OHR and the state-building attempts by the international community [that] can make for uncomfortable reading".^[19] The book has been criticized for being too skeptical of the international community's statebuilding efforts in the country.^[20]

Parish purports to provide a critique of the international community's activities in the Balkans^[21] Parish writes occasional columns for the Sarajevo-based newspaper Oslobodjenje and for Balkan Insight.

Parish spoke to the UN General Assembly in April 2013 in a meeting organized by its then President Vuk Jeremic.^[22] He chaired a debate about the effectiveness of international criminal justice, and how it might be made more efficient and improved.

Constructivism in international relations

Parish's book "Mirages of International Justice",^[23] advances a constructivist account of international law. He thinks sovereign states would never agree to create genuinely impartial and independent international courts that would enforce international law against themselves. Thus international courts are deliberately made powerless, and they occupy precarious roles in the balance of power in which they are liable to make decisions in accordance with Great Power interests. International tribunals proliferate not because states want to see international justice done but because they want to associate themselves with the ideals captured in discourse about international law without making any real commitments. The world of international relations remains an anarchy, but international courts (and indeed international organizations in general) are part of an illusion that the world is ordered in accordance with moral principles. Nevertheless he is a defender of controversial investment treaty arbitration, a system of international law that allows investors to sue states.

Parish is a scholar of the jurisprudence of both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and international criminal law in general.^[24][25][26]

Parish has given evidence to both the European Parliament and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US Congress^[27] on issues relating to international organizations and international law. He is an advocate of free trade and open-market economics, and says that international investment is a consequence of free trade.

Parish has held inconsistent views about global government, sometimes saying it is inevitable but a bad thing and other times denying the possibility of independent states genuinely pooling sovereignty except through imperial occupation. Hence his views towards the United Nations remain mostly mysterious even though he writes about it a lot.

Published works and other media

Parish has written a number of other academic and scholarly articles, including:

Legal and academic papers and journal articles

• Film Finance: The Hidden Wager (2002) 118 L.Q.R.187 Considers whether there is an insurable interest in film finance insurance policies. Published in the Law Quarterly Review, England’s foremost academic legal journal.
• State aid and third parties: a logical paradox (2002) 27 E.L.Rev. 628 Addresses the nature of remedies in EC competition law cases in which government financial assistance to private sector companies has been held to be unlawful. Published in the European Law Review, the premier English language journal on EC law.
• On the Private Investor Principle (2003) 28 E.L.Rev. 70^[28] Critique of a central principle of EC competition law as conceptually incoherent. At the request of Philippe Herzog MEP.
• Why are developing world private finance contracts so difficult to get right? Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence, Vol. 5(2) April 2007^[29] Discusses microeconomic obstacles to successful execution of project finance contracts for the private operation of infrastructure services in the developing world, and the high incidence of arbitration and renegotiation associated with them. Examines information and cooperation problems, and analyses failures to plan adequately for dispute resolution scenarios.
• On Necessity J. World Inv’t & Trade 11(2): 1 (2010) Critique of the public international law “emergency defences” in the context of the global economic crisis, as elucidated through ICJ and investment tribunal case law, and the ILC draft articles on state responsibility.
• The Proper Law of an Arbitration Agreement Arbitration, the Journal of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators 76(4): 661 (2010) Argues that conventional doctrines of dépeçage in the law of international arbitration are confused. The “proper law of an arbitration agreement” by which an arbitration clause’s validity is judged should generally follow the lex fori, irrespective of the lex causae; but capacity to arbitrate should be assessed by the lex domicilii, even for public entities.
• Awarding Moral Damages to Respondent States in Investment Arbitration Berkeley Journal of International Law 29(1): 101 (2010)^[30] Investigates the incidence of moral damages claims in investment treaty arbitration. Surveys cases where claimants have been awarded moral damages, and considers the criteria and quantum. Also suggests respondent states may be entitled to bring counterclaims for moral damages where claimants proceed vexatiously in bringing investment treaty claims.
• Investment Treaty Law and International Law Am.Rev.Int’l.Arb. 23(1):137 (2012) Considers the occasions on which arbitration tribunal established under investment treaties have had cause to consider the content of other areas of law, and examines the different methods they have used for resolving areas of overlap and conflict. Considers in particular the relationship between investment treaty law and human rights law, EU law and international arbitration law. Winner, International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, Best Short Article of 2012 Also published in Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law (T. Weiler, ed., Juris 2014)
• An Introduction to the Energy Charter Treaty Am.Rev.Int’l.Arb. 20: 191 (2010) Provides an overview of the jurisdictional requirements for US investors to acquire Energy Charter Treaty protections when investing in the energy sector in Eastern Europe and the CIS.
• The public international law of bank bail-outs Transnational Dispute Management, Vol. 7(1) April 2010 Discusses the principles of international investment law applicable to the bank bail-outs that occurred globally in 2008/2009, and asks whether claims may be raised before investment tribunals by investors aggrieved by the terms of national bail-out programmes.
• International Officials Austrian Rev.Int’l.Eur.L. Vol. 13: 79 (2008)^[31] Discusses the powers in public international law of officials charged with UN-mandated and other international territorial administrations in post-conflict societies. Argues that those powers should be strictly delimited and subject to international legal review by an impartial international judicial body.
• An Essay on the Accountability of International Organizations Int’l.Org.L.Rev. 7(2): 277 (2010)^[32][33][34] Argues for improved legal accountability of international organizations, abandonment of traditional doctrines of functional immunity from domestic suit, and application of human rights treaties to the acts of IOs. First presented as part of a conference panel on accountability of international organisations, of which the author was the Chair. International Law Association Conference: Challenges to Transnational Governance, Fordham Law School, NYC, 22–23 October 2009.
• The Economic Logic of Formality in Property Law European Law & Economics Association (ELEA) 2009 Annual Conference (September 2009)^[35] Discusses the economic rationale of the common law rule that passage of title to personalty is a question of parties’ intention. Compares this principle unfavourably with a Roman-Germanic doctrine of traditio.
• The Demise of the Dayton Protectorate Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, December 2007^[36] Discusses the rise and fall of the international legal regime in post-war Bosnia, under which a UN official called the “High Representative” ran Bosnia as an internationally administered governorate for over ten years.
• Republika Srpska: After Independence^{[37][38][39][40]} Argues that the fracture of post-war Bosnia into two or more mini-states is inevitable. The international community’s best course is not to make futile attempts to resist it, but rather delay the process. When the inevitable finally happens, the international community should accept the country’s partition and ameliorate the worst consequences.
• Paradigms of State-Building: Comparing Bosnia and Kosovo Journal of Eurasian Law 3(3) (2010)^[41] Critiques the legal structure of international territorial administration in post-war Bosnia and Kosovo. Draws parallels between the legal structure of the state-building missions in each territory, yet observes that the challenges facing intervention missions in each territory were profoundly different, and seeks to draw lessons from the errors made by the international community in each jurisdiction.
• Arbitration in the Western Balkans: The Emerging Commercial Landscape Pravni Život (Serbian academic legal journal), December 2010^[42] Also presented at the conference of the Kopaonik School of Natural Law, 14 December 2010
• The political logic of Balkanisation Proceedings of the Geneva Security Forum (2011) Considers the success and failures of secessionist movements around the world, the international law governing state secession, and the political conditions which make secession possible, in the context of state-building missions that seek to hold countries together in the aftermath of civil war.
• International courts and the European Legal Order European Journal of International Law, Vol. 23(1) (2012)^[43] Considers the possibility for conflict between different areas of international law, in particular between EU law and other areas of international law, and reviews the opinion of the European Court of Justice declaring the European Community and Patents Court to be inconsistent with EU law.
• International sanctions and how to evade them Oil Gas & Energy Law 10th Edition Special Issue, March 2012^[44] Analyzes the legal effects of differing regimes of international sanctions, and the ease of evading those sanctions. Includes travel bans, banking bans and export embargoes, principally considered in the context of the 2012 Iran crisis.
• Wrongful acts of international organizations: no remedy means no responsibility International Law Association Committee Report, 18 December 2012^[45] Considers the obligations under international law of international organizations, and the paucity of remedies available to those adversely affected by their decisions. The article also serves as an introduction to the committee's work.
• Deregulating legal fees Legal Studies, September 2012 (forthcoming) Argues that regulators’ schemes for controlling freedom of contract between lawyers and their clients for their fee structures are self-defeating. In particular the prohibition on contingency fees has no sound policy ground save restricting access to justice. Fee regulation is another sort of barrier to entry regulation and promotes cartel practices amongst legal professionals.
• Judicial Politics and the Balkan Wars Foreign Legal Life, Volume 2(2013) A critical assessment of the decision of the Appellate Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia to overturn the first instance decision convicting the Croatian General Ante Gotovina of war crimes in the course of Operation Storm, expelling Serbs from Krajina, in August 1995.
• International law and Great Power Politics In David Feldman, ed., Law in Politics, Politics in Law (Oxford: Hart), 2013^[46] Considers the relationship between the way international law is developed and adjudicated by international courts, and the relative political strength of the sovereign litigants that international law concerns. Advances the author's pessimistic constructivism theory of international law.
• International Law and International Organizations: the Legacy of the Twentieth Century Право Журнал высшей школы экономики (2014), Vol. 2: 124 Explores the rise of international organisations in the political history of the twentieth century, the consequent growth of international law, and the effects of this growth upon international relations, from a constructivist perspective.

Books

• A Free City in the Balkans: Reconstructing a Divided Society in Bosnia I.B.Tauris, London (October 2009)^[47] First book, discussing the work of a public international law arbitration tribunal: the Arbitral Tribunal for the Dispute over the Inter-Entity Boundary in the Brčko Area, of which the author was one of the principal officers.
• Mirages of International Justice: The Elusive Pursuit of a Transnational Legal Order Edward Elgar, London (May 2011)^[48] Second book, comparing structural failures in different international courts and tribunals. Applies the insights of realism and constructivism in international relations theory to international law. Compares the ECHR, investment tribunals, the ICJ, international criminal courts, the WTO and the EU courts.
• Ethnic Civil War and the Promise of Law Edward Elgar, London (forthcoming late 2013)^[49] Third book, analysing the different state-building strategies used by the international community in ethnic civil wars. One of the first comparative studies in the field, contrasting state-building projects in the Balkans, the Middle East, Latin America and East Asia. This book presents a sceptical hypothesis, concerned that the short electoral cycles to which intervening governments work hinders the long-term commitment necessary to achieve sustainable results.

Media interviews and editorials

• Glas Srpske (Bosnian daily newspaper), 16 October 2008^[50]
• Glas Srpske, 18 October 2008^[51]
• The Bosnian state is collapsing and the West looks away NRC Handelsblat (Dutch daily newspaper), 18 October 2008
• OHR should close, the sooner the better Oslobodjenje (Bosnian daily newspaper), 25 October 2008
• Is OHR about to appoint a Brčko Mayor? Nezavisne Novine (Bosnian daily newspaper), 14 December 2008^[52]
• Lajčák resigns: what next for Bosnia? Oslobodjenje, 31 January 2009
• While the village burns, OHR brushes its hair (on the economic crisis in Bosnia) Oslobodjenje, 25 July 2009
• Bonus supertax sends the City’s super-rich to Switzerland Interview, The Sunday Times (UK newspaper), 17 January 2010
• Genève, l’autre crise du logement Interview, Le Temps (Swiss newspaper), 19 February 2010
• While the village burns, OHR brushes its hair (on the economic crisis in Bosnia) Oslobodjenje, 25 July 2009
• Bonus supertax sends the City’s super-rich to Switzerland^[53] Interview, The Sunday Times (UK newspaper), 17 January 2010
• Genève, l’autre crise du logement^[54] Interview, Le Temps (Swiss newspaper), 19 February 2010
• Being close to the Balkans^[55] Interview, World Radio Switzerland, 16 March 2010
• Gregorian’s Departure weakens US interest in Bosnia^[56] Balkan Insight, 31 March 2010
• Diplomacy Trail: A New Era^[57] Interview, World Radio Switzerland, 1 June 2010
• Kosovo ruling reveals World Court’s Darker Side^[58][59] Balkan Insight, 28 July 2010
• New powers for EU Bosnia envoy questioned^[60] Interview, Balkan Insight, 28 July 2010
• Open letter to Ambassador Roderick Moore^[61] Oslobodjenje, 11 September 2010, Discussed by Ivan Lovrenović, Dani, 17 September 2010
• US courts chip away at the crumbling edifice of legal immunity^[62] UN Justice, 29 September 2010
• The unfortunate case of Dragomir Andan^[63][64] Nezavisne Novine, 7 October 2010
• Tadić and Dodik: Friends in Torment^[65] Balkan Insight, 23 November 2010
• The status of Sarajevo – question of all questions in post-Dayton Bosnia Interview by Dušan Babić, Dani, 25 November 2010
• Richard Holbrooke, Balkan Peacemaker^[66] Obituary, Balkan Insight, 14 December 2010
• Dodik’s next move: squeezing Brčko dry^[67][68][69] Oslobodjenje, 27 January 2011
• Floating in a Legal Vacuum^[70] Interview, Staff Union of the European Patent Office, 15 February 2011
• Croat crisis pushes Bosnia towards endgame^[71][72] Balkan Insight, 22 March 2011
• Court and Prosecutor’s Office Await Inevitable Collapse^[73][74] Interview, Glas Srpske, 13 April 2011
• The elusive pursuit of employees’ rights, FICSA Newsletter, April 2011^[75] Also published in conjunction with the Luxembourg Colloquium on the Evolution of Legal Protection of International and European Civil Servants, 1–2 April 2011
• Alle Wege führen ins Nichts Interview (status of international organizations), Financial Times Deutschland, p. 20, 5 April 2011
• Court and Prosecutor’s Office Face Inevitable Collapse^[76][77] Interview, Glas Srpske, 13 April 2010
• Gotovina Judgment and the Politics of International Justice^[78][79] Balkan Insight, 19 April 2011
• Inzko’s imprecise threat of sanctions,^[80] interview, Glas Srpske, 2 May 2011
• Milorad Dodik and the Politics of Referendum,^[81][82] Transconflict, 16 May 2011
• The silent passing of Bosnian proconsulship,^[83][84] Balkan Insight, 14 June 2011
• Kosovo: The Politics of Partition^[85] Transconflict, 8 August 2011
• Waiting for Godot in Dodik’s Bosnia^[86] Transconflict, 21 September 2011
• The Painful Legacy of Brcko's Imperial Experiment^[87] Balkan Insight, 20 January 2012
• Radio Frontier,^[88] 13 October 2011, Geneva lawyer says World Health Organisation could be sunk by legal fees
• Le Matin (Swiss newspaper),^[89] 2 November 2011, L'avocat qui veut faire payer l'OMS
• GHI (Swiss newspaper),^[90] 2 November 2011, Nous réclamons 500'000 dollars par employé viré!
• World Radio Switzerland,^[91] 4 November 2011, "They're pretending the reason is the strong Swiss franc"
• Swissinfo (English language branch of Swiss national broadcaster),^[92] 4 November 2011 WHO faces multi-million franc lawsuits over jobs
• Le Temps (Swiss newspaper),^[93] 12 November 2011 À Genève, la doulousreuse réforme de l'OMS
• Radio Frontier,^[94] 14 November 2011 WHO job cuts
• La crise touché les négociants de matières premières^[95] Interview, Bilan, 1 February 2012
• The West's Balkan Proconsulships are Doomed to Fail^[96][97] Balkan Insight, 2 March 2012
• Two decades on, Bosnia's divisions are self-imposed^[98][99] Balkan Insight, 9 April 2012
• International Justice: Progress or Mirage?^[100] Edward Elgar, 10 August 2012
• Depressed West Averts Gaze from Bosnia's Demise^[101] Balkan Insight, 15 August 2012
• Eurozone collapse: the legal consequences^[102] Holman Fenwick Willan client note, 22 October 2012
• Assessing race and inequality in international development^[103] The Guardian, 28 February 2013
• L'ONU dégraisse dès avril^[104], GHI, 21 March 2013
• Bosnian Serb secession: could it ever happen?^[105][106] University of Texas at Austin Working Paper, 1 April 2013
• Investment treaty law and conflicts of laws Holman Fenwick Willan International Arbitration analysis, April 2013
• International criminal law: justice or mirage?^[107] Recap of comments delivered to UN General Assembly, Transconflict, 2 May 2013
• Tales from Herzeg-Bosnia: The trial of the Prlić defendants^[108] Transconflict, 31 May 2013
• Egypt's Democratic Phantasm^[109] Transconflict, 16 July 2013
• Syria Disfigured: Options for the West^[110] Transconflict, 27 August 2013
• Sanctions and the Middle East: the Swiss deviation^[111] Journal of Export Controls and Sanctions, Issue 24 (September 2013)
• Temperance in the Arab Spring: averting catastrophe through Great Power politics^[112] Transconflict, 25 November 2013
• Internet privacy in the Global Age: Towards a Regime for Transnational Data Protection^[113] 2014 International Conference on Information Technology and Management Engineering 26–27 April 2014, Hong Kong
• Winners and Losers in the Balkan Wars^[114] – lessons for Ukraine and the Levant, Transconflict, 12 May 2014
• Kosovo and Crimea: What's the Difference?^[115] Transconflict, 2 June 2014
• An Enquiry Concerning the Donetsk People's Republic^[116] Transconflict, 6 June 2014
• The Bonn Powers^[117], radio documentary, interview, November 2013
• The Spectre of Nationalism in the Modern Balkans^[118] Transconflict, 3 December 2014
• Living with the Islamic State^[119] Transconflict, 31 December 2014
• Fighting Cold War in Russia and Ukraine^[120] Transconflict, 9 January 2015
• Towards Kurdistan Independence^[121] Peacefare, 15 January 2015
• Law and Genocide: Lessons from the Balkans^[122] Transconflict, 9 February 2015
• Arbitrators rejoice: the increasingly exorbitant cost of the English Commercial Court^[123] Global Arbitration Review, 6 March 2015
• The new Swiss perspective on international arbitration^[124] Legal Business, March 2015
• Agreeing to end civil wars: reflections from the Balkans to Ukraine^[125] Transconflict, 15 April 2015

Conference presentations and public speeches

• European Parliament, 11 June 2003, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs^[126] Services of General Interest: The Current Legal Framework and Proposals for Revision
• University of Graz, European Academy, 21 February 2008 Federalism in Post-war Bosnia: Why it didn’t work and why it harmed Bosnia’s economy
• Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, 15 January 2009^[127] Ensuring Bosnia’s Future
• Graduate Institute, Geneva, International Organisations seminar, 19 November 2009 The role of international organisations in peace building: the case of post-war Bosnia
• European Law & Economics Association (ELEA) 2009 Annual Conference, September 2009 Presentation on the economics of differing legal rules for transfer of personal property
• International Law Association Conference: Challenges to Transnational Governance Fordham Law School, NYC, 22–23 October 2009^[128] Panel Chair: Legal Accountability of International Organizations: Challenges and Reforms
• East India Club, London, 10 December 2009, public lecture Book promotion: A Free City in the Balkans
• Webster University Geneva, seminar on post-conflict peacekeeping, 13 April 2010 Territorial limitations of peacekeeping in post-war Bosnia
• Geneva Global Security Forum, Webster University Geneva, 16 April 2010^{[129][130][131]} Panel speaker on international law and peace-building
• Friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina (diplomatic working party),Turkish Embassy, Washington DC, 30 April 2010 Two Speed Bosnia: Forwards and Back
• Rutgers University, Newark NJ, 27 October 2010, public lecture Catastrophes of State-Building: Learning from the Bosnian Prototype
• Frozen conflicts seminar, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, NYC, 28 October 2010^[132] One Size Fits All in International Territorial Administration: Learning from the Bosnia-Kosovo Paradigm
• Columbia University, NYC, 28 October 2010, public lecture^[133] State-Building in Post-war Bosnia: The Legacy of Failure
• European Patent Organisation, Munich, 19 January 2011 (Staff Union invitation) Law, due process and international organisations
• Humanitarian Space, 16th International Humanitarian Conference, Webster University, UNHCR, ICRC, Geneva International Conference Centre 27/28 January 2011^[134] Is state-building a science?
• Geneva In-Sight (annual Geneva commodities trading meeting), 15 March 2011^[135] Risky business: legal aspects of commodities trading in emerging markets, and future regulatory challenges
• British Swiss Chamber of Commerce, annual legal & tax conference, Geneva, 24 March 2011^[136] Moving your business across jurisdictions: challenges and opportunities, Conference co-chair
• Geneva Global Security Forum, Webster University Geneva, 8 April 2011^[137] Air strikes from Bosnia to Kosovo to Libya
• W.G. Hart Legal Workshop, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, 30 June 2011^[138]Abrogating Westphalia: The Perils of International Territorial Administration
• Society of Legal Scholars annual conference, 6 September 2011^[139] Plenary session: Lawyers and the political: politics, lawmaking and governance
• American Branch, International Law Association, annual conference, NYC 21 October 2011^[140] Panel chair: The Law of the International Civil Service and National Employment Law
• Financing Commodity-Based Development in Developing Countries^[141] UNCTAD Global Commodities Forum, 23–24 January 2012
• International Law and the Return of Great Power Politics Keynote speaker, Conference, Law and the Global World Community National Research University Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, 27–28 January 2012
• Refugees in the Balkans: The Lingering Political Landscape^[142] Humanitarian Space Conference, 1–2 March 2012
• The role of international arbitration in a new transnational legal order^[143][144] Keynote speaker, HFW Geneva seminar series / Graduate Institute CTEI Speaker Series, 15 March 2012

Education and background

Parish attended Harrogate Grammar School before he moved to Cambridge University where he is a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he obtained Triple First Class Honors degree, and of the University of Chicago Law School, where he obtained his doctorate. From 2009 to 2010 he was a Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a senior non-resident fellow of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development. Parish is also a senior fellow of the Institute of Comparative Law. He is a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn and of the Swiss Arbitration Association. He is a visiting professor at the University of Geneva and teaches at a variety of universities across Europe. Parish formerly worked as an intern for Advocate General Francis Jacobs at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He is the Chair of the International Law Association's New York Committee on the Accountability of International Organizations. He is originally from Yorkshire.

References

External links

• Matthew Parish's website
• Government of Republika Srpska
• Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in Kosovo's Declaration of Independence
• Government of Brcko District
• Interview with Matthew Parish, 28 August 2010, Part 1
• Interview with Matthew Parish, 29 August 2010, Part 2
• Interview with Matthew Parish, 16 February 2011
• Parish's articles on Transconflict
• Parish's articles on Balkan Insight

External links

• Gentium Law Group Official Website