Prof Dire D Tladi

Position, Academic and Professional Qualifications

Dire Tladi is a Professor of International law in the Department of Public Law, and a Fellow at the Institute of Comparative and International Law in Africa.  He holds the degrees BLC LLB cum laude (Pret), an LLM (UConn), and a PhD (EUR).  The title of his PhD thesis was “Towards a nuanced conceptualisation of sustainable development in International Law: An analysis of key enviro-economic instruments”.  He was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 2000.

Academic and Professional Experience

Dire Tladi was appointed lecturer in the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria in January 1997.  In 2002, he moved to the Department of International, Constitutional and Indigenous Law at the University of South Africa where, in 2004, he was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and subsequently head of department.  In 2006 he joined the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (then Department of Foreign Affairs), as Principal State Law Advisor for International Law.  From 2009 to 2013 he served as legal advisor to the South African Permanent Mission to the United Nations.  In the meantime he retained ties with the academia by serving as extraordinary professor and honorary professor at the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Pretoria respectively.  In 2014, he returned to the University of Pretoria.

Teaching Activities

Professor Tladi currently teaches in three LLM modules, namely Advanced International Law, Applied International Law and International Environment Law. He also supervise LLB and LLM dissertations, and LLD theses in his respective fields.

Doctoral candidates

Prof Tladi currently supervise six doctoral students (Aniel de Beer, Kobina Daniel, Milton Owur, Yolandi Meyer, Leon Gerber, Yanick Tchamba) and act as co-supervisor for one student (Kizito Kabengele).

Representative publications

  • “Interpretation of Treaties in an International Law-Friendly Framework: the Case of South Africa” in Georg Nolte and Helmut Aust (Ed.) The Interpretation of International Law by Domestic Courts Uniformity, Diversity, Convergence (2016)
  • “The Proposed Implementing Agreement: Options for Coherence and Consistency in the Establishment of Marine Protected Areas” (2015) 30 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 654*
  • “Conservation and Sustainable use of Marine Biological Diversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Towards an Implementing Agreement” in Rosemary Rayfuse (Ed.) Research Handbook on International Environmental Law (2015)
  • “The United Nations Charter and the South African Legal Order” in de Wet, Hestermeyer and Wolfrum (Eds.) The Implementation of International Law in Germany and South Africa (2015)
  • “The Duty on South Africa to Arrest and Surrender President Al Bashir under South African Law: A Perspective from International Law” (2015) 13 Journal of International Criminal Justice 1027*
  • “The Immunity Provisions in the AU Amendment Protocol: Separating the (Doctrinal) Wheat from the Normative (Chaff)” (2015) 13 Journal of International Criminal Justice 3*
  • “The Common Heritage of Mankind and the Proposed Treaty on Areas beyond National Jurisdiction” (2014) 25 Yearbook of International Environmental Law (forthcoming)
  • “Challenges and Opportunities in the Implementation of the Supplementary Protocol: Reinterpretation and Re-imagination” in Akiho Shibata (Ed) International Liability Regime for Biodiversity Damage (2014)
  • “National Commissioner of the South African Police Service v Southern African Litigation Centre (Sup Ct S Afr) – Introductory Note” (2015) 54 International Legal Materials 152
  • “A horizontal Treaty on Cooperation in International Criminal Matters: The next step for the evolution of a comprehensive international criminal justice system?” (2014) 29 Southern African Public Law 368*
  • “When Elephants Collide it is the Grass that Suffers: Cooperation and the Security Council in the Context of AU/ICC Dynamics” (2014) 7 African Journal of Legal Studies 381*
  • “State Practice and the Making and (Re)Making of International Law: The Case of the Legal Rules Relating to Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction” (2014) 1 Journal of State Practice and International Law 97
  • “Progressive development and codification of international law: The work of
  • the International Law Commission during its sixty-sixth session” (2013) 38 South African Yearbook of International Law 124
  • “The Nonconsenting Innocent State: The Problem With Bethlehem’s Principle 12” (2013) 107 American Journal of International Law 570*
  • “The ICC Decisions on Chad and Malawi: On Cooperation, Immunities and Article 98” 2013 Journal of International Criminal Justice 199*
  • “Security Council, the use of force and regime change: Libya and Cote d’Ivoire” (2012) 37 South African Yearbook of International Law 22*
  • “On the Al Qaida/Taliban Sanctions Regime: Due Process and Sun Sets” 2011 10 Chinese Journal of International Law 771*
  • “Oceans Governance: A Fragmented Regulatory Framework” in Pierre Jacquet, Rajendra Pachauri and Laurence Tubiana (Eds) A Planet for Life 2011 – Oceans (2011)
  • “Kampala, the International Criminal Court and the Adoption of a Definition for the Crime of Aggression: A Dream Deferred” (2010) 35 SA Yearbook of International Law 180*
  • “Civil Liability in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol: To Be or Not to Be (Binding)” (2010) 1 International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 15*
  • “Sustainable Development, Integration and the Conflation of Values: The Fuel Retailers case” in Duncan French (Ed.) Sustainable Development and Global Justice (October 2010)

Areas of Specialisation

Public International Law, International Environmental Law, International Criminal Law.

Selected Videos

Academic and Professional Membership

  • Member of the UN International Law Commission
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals
  • Co-Editor in Chief South African Yearbook of International Law

Appointments

  • Special Advisor to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, 2014 – Present;
  • Member of the legal advisory team to Presidents Chissano, Mbeki and Mogae on border issue between Malawi and Tanzania

Contact details

- Author Department of Public Law

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