Frédéric Mégret

Full Professor
Co-director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism
Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law

3674 Peel Street
Room 101a
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1W9

514-398-5962 [Office]
frederic.megret [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Frédéric Mégret


Publications on SSRN
Google Scholar Profile
Curriculum Vitae and publications (updated May 2023)

Follow him on Twitter: @fredericmegret

Biography

Frédéric Mégret is a Professor of Law and the holder of the Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law. Previously he was a William Dawson Scholar from 2015 to 2023, and the holder of the Canada Research Chair on the Law of Human Rights and Legal Pluralism from 2006 to 2015.

In November 2022, Professor Mégret received an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen in recognition of his work in international law. He was named to the Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law for a seven-year term, starting 1 September 2023.

Professor Mégret is currently co-authoring a book on Diasporas and International Law with Larissa van den Herik (Leiden University). He is the co-editor with Philip Alston of The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal (Oxford University Press, 2020); with Immi Tallgren of The Dawn of a Discipline: International Criminal Justice and its Early Exponents (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and, with Kevin Jon Heller, Sarah Nouwen, Jens David Ohlin and Darryl Robinson of The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is also the author of Le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (Pedone, 2002). 

Prior to joining McGill University, Professor Mégret was an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto, a Boulton fellow at McGill University and a research associate at the European University Institute in Florence.

Professor Mégret’s scholarship has appeared in the European Journal of International Law, the American Journal of International Law, the Modern Law Review, the Leiden Journal of International Law, International Criminal Justice, Human Rights Quarterly, the International Journal of Human Rights, the Human Rights Law Review, the Melbourne Journal of International Law, Transnational Legal Theory, Global Constitutionalism, the Canadian Yearbook of International Law, the Revue Québécoise de droit international, the Revue belge de droit international, Global Governance, the Harvard Human Rights Law Journal, and the McGill Law Journal among others.

Research interests

Professor Mégret's interests lie in international criminal justice, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the law of international organizations, transitional justice, criminal law, and general international law. He has a long-term interest in developing theories about the nature and history of international criminal justice. His work on international human rights is more explicitly critical in nature, seeking to uncover what lies behind the project of simultaneously internationalizing and legalizing human rights. He is interested in attempting to “re-imagine” the laws of war with a view in particular to prodding some of the limits of the humanitarian tradition from the point of view of the jus contra bellum and pacifism.

In addition, Professor Mégret has a long-standing interest in (i) the idea of resistance, including civil disobedience and armed rebellion, in international law, (ii) the role and status of the state in international law and particularly international law's role in consolidating the state's monopoly on legitimate force, (iii) the responsibility and accountability of international organizations, notably in peacekeeping environments, (iv) migrations, the protection of aliens, and diasporas, (v) the anthropocentrism of international law and human rights.

Professor Mégret is always interested in supervising graduate work on these issues and is particularly interested in students with strong backgrounds in legal or political theory.

Employment

  • Co-director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, 2021-2024
  • Full Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2019-
  • William Dawson Scholar, McGill University, 2015- 2023
  • Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2012-2015
  • Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2011-2019
  • Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2005-2011
  • Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 2004-2005
  • Boulton fellow, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2003-2004
  • Research associate, Law Department, European University Institute (Florence), 2001-2002
  • Attaché and consultant, International Organizations Division, International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva), 1998-1999
  • Attaché, French diplomatic delegation, Rome Conference on the creation of an International Criminal Court, 1998

Education

  • Ph.D., Graduate Institute of International Studies (University of Geneva) / Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I), 2006
  • Institut d'études politiques de Paris, international section. Erasmus student at Leiden University, 1996-1998
  • Diploma in advanced studies in international public law and international organisations law, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1996-1998
  • LL.B., King’s College, London, 1994
  • Maîtrise de droit privé, Université de Paris I, 1994

Areas of Interest

International criminal justice, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the law of international organizations, transitional justice, criminal law, and international law.

Recent publications

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