Dr Alexander Gilder

Alex is a Lecturer in Law in the Department of Law and Criminology and Senior Research Fellow at the Conflict, Violence and Terrorism Research Centre. He specialises in public international law, especially areas related to international peace and security.

Externally, he is Co-convenor of the International Law Subject Section of the Society of Legal Scholars and an Associate Editor of the Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Hargeisa.

Alex has published widely in the field of public international law, including on UN peacekeeping, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, human security, the use of force, and the International Court of Justice. His research on these topics has appeared in journals, such as International Peacekeeping, the Netherlands International Law Review, the Indian Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, the Wisconsin International Law Journal, the Utrecht Law Review, and the Journal of International Peacekeeping.

His research currently follows two strands. First, Alex examines themes related to stabilization in UN peacekeeping including robust force, counter-terrorism, and the effect of militarisation on other mandated tasks, such as entrenching the rule of law. Second, he is interested in the theory and history of international law and has worked on the relationships between the concept of human security, the individual, and international law.

His monograph, Stabilization and Human Security in UN Peace Operations, is forthcoming with Routledge. The book includes case studies on MINUSMA, MINUSCA, and UNMISS that examine whether the concept of human security can be seen in the UN's current stabilization activities.

• Public international law
• UN peace operations
• Human security
• International human rights law
• International humanitarian law
• Use of force
• International legal theory

Alex is the module convenor for Public International Law (LL2005/LL3505). He also teaches on Public Law (Constitutional, Administrative and Human Rights Law) (LL1001), Criminal Law (LL1003), and supervises dissertations (LL3003).

He is particularly interested in clinical legal education and is involved in the development and supervision of international law and human rights-based clinical projects for the Legal Advice Centre with the Director, Nicola Antoniou. One such project, with colleagues in the Department of Politics and International Relations, brings students together from Royal Holloway and the University of Hargeisa (Somaliland) to produce publicly accessible explainers on human rights and peacebuilding.

PhD supervision

Alex is available to supervise PhDs in public international law that are related to his above areas of research interest.

PhD, City, University of London

LLM Public International Law (and International Human Rights Law), Utrecht University

PgCAP, City, University of London

LLB (Hons), University of Lincoln

Fellow, Higher Education Academy