MAX PLANCK YEARBOOK OF UNITED NATIONS LAW
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About the yearbook
Founded in 1997 by the Directors of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (UNYB) is a peer-reviewed academic publication that has been produced by the Max Planck Foundation since 2014, and published by Brill. The UNYB is ranked and academically indexed by Scopus. The current Editors-in-Chief of the publication are, Professor Erika de Wet and Dr Kathrin Maria Scherr.
The UNYB was the first scholarly periodical to focus on activities of the United Nations in the field of international law. By concentrating on issues connected with the UN and its initiatives, the Yearbook aims to facilitate an understanding of the changes the UN has been undergoing since its foundation. It also provides a forum in which the potential of international organisations to affect the future course of international law and relations can be examined and assessed.
Traditionally, the UNYB has consisted of two parts:
The first part, “The Law and Practice of the United Nations”, concentrates on UN law in a narrow sense, meaning the legal fundaments of the UN and its Specialised Agencies and Programmes and their legal and political practice. The focus is on treaties, covenants, resolutions and other international legal instruments.
The second part, “Legal Issues Related to the Goals of the United Nations”, analyses achievements concerning the main objectives of the UN such as sustainable development, refugee protection, disarmament and non-proliferation, rule of law, and gender equality. It is also open for articles on important legal developments in countries and geographic areas of special importance to the UN, particularly those assisted by a Peacekeeping Mission or Special Envoys or Representatives of the UN Secretary General. In general, the UNYB features articles that fit within the above editorial line or deal with issues of general public international law or comparative constitutional law.
Information for Authors
The UNYB invites manuscript submissions of high-quality throughout the year which focus on United Nations Law, general public international law and comparative constitutional law. Authors may submit articles, essays, comments, and case notes for consideration of publication. In addition, please consult our ongoing thematic call for papers, published once a year.
Prior to the submission of a full manuscript, authors are requested to send at first instance a short abstract proposal of their manuscript. The proposal should include i) the working title; ii) the main arguments to be developed in the article; and, iii) a brief explanation on how the topic fits within the scope of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law. Please submit your proposal in a Word document, along with a short author bio (max 100 words) in the cover letter, accompanied by an assurance that the article has not been published, submitted, or accepted elsewhere delivered by email to Managing Editor, Sai Venkatesh, at . Following a positive assessment, the editorial team will request the author for the submission of their full article to be placed through the thorough double-blind peer-review process followed by the publication.
The editorial team cannot guarantee publication of any submissions, be they solicited or unsolicited. Authors will be notified once a decision has been deliberated upon by the editorial team based on feedback from the peer-review process.
Editorial Advisory Board
The Editorial Advisory Board is comprised of a committee of expert scholars from around the world. They will work in close association with the editorial secretariat (i.e. the Editors-in-Chief and the Managing Editor of the UNYB), in developing the overall Yearbook strategy for future volumes, and mainly act as pioneers for the promotion and development of the publication.

E. Tendayi Achiume is a scholar in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for 2024-2025 and a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. She is an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria and a Research Associate with the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand and the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. From 2017 to 2022, she served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, the first woman to hold this role since its creation in 1993. Her research examines the global governance of racism and xenophobia and the legal and ethical implications of colonialism for international migration. She serves on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and is a commissioner for the O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health. She has also served as the inaugural Alicia Miñana Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where she received the Distinguished Teaching Award. She previously clerked for Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Justice Yvonne Mokgoro on the Constitutional Court of South Africa and worked with Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg. Her scholarship has been widely published, including in the American Journal of International Law, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Yale Law Journal. She earned her B.A. and J.D. from Yale University.

Martha M Bradley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg. She specialises in Public International Law and International Humanitarian Law. Professor Bradley is a Y1 National Research Foundation-rated Scholar. This rating relates to a young researcher (within 5 years of PhD) who is recognised by the reviewers as having the potential (demonstrated by research products) to establish themselves as a researcher and demonstrated an indication that they have the potential to become a future leader in their field. Martha Bradley holds an LLB degree, an LLM in International Air, Space and Telecommunications Law in 2014, an LLM in Shipping Law, and an LLD degree in Public International Law. Martha has completed several certificate courses at the International Institute for Humanitarian Law in San Remo. Professor Bradley recently was selected by the Minister of Higher Education of South Africa to participate in the DHET Future Professors Program Cohort 1 Phase 2 where 29 promising academics from South African universities are selected to undergo advanced training to develop their capabilities and fill the gaps in the professoriate in South Africa.

Yifeng Chen is an associate professor at the Peking University Law School and deputy director of the Peking University Institute of International Law. Before joining Peking University, He was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki from 2010-2013. His fields of interest include the history and theory of international law, international organisations, global governance and labour law.

Charles C. Jalloh is the Richard A. Hausler Chair and Professor of International Law at the University of Miami School of Law. He is a member of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC), where he serves as Special Rapporteur for the topic “Subsidiary means for the determination of rules of international law” and has held leadership roles, including Chair of the Drafting Committee (70th session) and General Rapporteur (71st session). A widely published scholar, he has authored numerous books and articles in leading journals, including the American Journal of International Law, where he serves on the Board of Editors. He is the founding editor of the African Journal of Legal Studies and the African Journal of International Criminal Justice. Before joining academia, he practised law in Canada and internationally, including at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He has advised governments and international organisations and appeared before the International Criminal Court, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the International Court of Justice. He holds common law and civil law degrees from McGill University, a Master’s in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Amsterdam.





Professor Alexander Proelss is the Chair of the International Law of the Sea and International Environmental Law, Public International Law and Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hamburg, where he is also the Director of the Institute for the Law of the Sea and for Maritime Law (ISSR). Prior to his move to Hamburg, he was a Professor of Public Law, in particular, Public International Law and European Union Law, and Director of the Institute of Environmental Law (IUTR) and the Institute for Legal Policy (IRP) at Trier University. International environmental law and the international law of the sea constitute the focal points of his research. Alexander Proelss has been a member of several national and international research consortia and has advised State agencies, international organisations and NGOs both in Germany and abroad on numerous occasions.

Dr Omri Sender is a scholar and practitioner in public international law. He acts as counsel and advisor to States, international organisations, and multinational corporations, including in dispute settlement proceedings before international courts and tribunals. He is the author of numerous writings in the field of public international law, which, like his practice, cover the full range of the discipline. Dr Sender previously served as Counsel to the World Bank and as Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel.

Ntina Tzouvala is an Associate Professor, at the School of Global and Public Law, University of New South Wales Faculty of Law & Justice. Her work focuses on the history, theory and political economy of international law. Her first monograph, Capitalism as Civilisation: a History of International Law (Cambridge UP, 2020), was awarded the ASIL Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship and the Australian Legal Research Award (ALRA) in the book category.

Philippa Webb is a Professor of Public International Law at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Exeter College. She previously served as Special Assistant and Legal Officer to Judge Rosalyn Higgins GBE QC during her Presidency of the International Court of Justice and as a legal adviser to the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. She is a barrister at Twenty Essex and serves on the UK Attorney-General’s Public International Law Panel of Counsel, regularly appearing before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and inter-State arbitral tribunals. Her scholarship spans international dispute settlement, human rights, and international organisations law, with publications including Freedom of Speech in International Law (2024), The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (2021, with Amal Clooney), and Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations (2017). She is a founding Board Member of the Clooney Foundation for Justice and serves on multiple international legal advisory panels. She holds a doctorate (JSD) and an LLM from Yale Law School.

Past Issues
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The three most recent volumes of the UNYB can be accessed on the Brill website via subscription.
For other Volumes (1–17) follow this link
News items
The Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (UNYB) holds Fourth Editorial Advisory Board Meeting
Publication Alert: Volume 27 of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law is now available online and in print
Open Call for Submissions: Volume 28 of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (2025)
A Sneak Preview into Volume 27 of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law is Now Available as an Advance Publication Online
Call for submissions for Volume 28 of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law
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