Prof. Stephen Vasciannie, CD

Prof.
Stephen
Vasciannie

Job title:

Professor of International Law

Education:

BSc (UWI), BA (Oxford), LLM (Cambridge), DPhil (Oxon)

Professional Affiliation:

Attorney-at-Law

Telephone:

876-927-1855

Email:

stephen.vasciannie@uwimona.edu.jm

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Overview

Prof. Stephen Vasciannie has been a Professor of International Law at the University of the West Indies since 2002. He holds First Class Honours degrees from the Universities of the West Indies and Oxford, and a Starred First from Cambridge in the LL.M degree programme. He completed his doctorate under the supervision of Sir Ian Brownlie QC, in 1988. He studied at Oxford and Cambridge as a Rhodes Scholar and a Commonwealth Scholar. He has worked in New York at the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations and at the Wall Street Law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. He has also been a Research Fellow at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, and was a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge in 2001-2002.

Research Interests:

International Law

Investment Law

Human Rights Law

Law of the Sea

Courses :

Public International Law I & II

The Law of International Courts and Tribunals

The Law of the Sea

Intro to International Investment Law

Supervised Independent Research Paper

Advanced Public International Law

Follow on:

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IxMME0MAAAAJ&hl=en

Profile

Within the University, he has been Head of the Department of Government, Mona, and a member, respectively, of the Boards of Graduate Studies and Undergraduate Studies. He has also been a Member of the Academic Board since 2002, and has been a member of the University Council of Jamaica as well as Chairman of the Board of Kingston College. While on secondment from the UWI, Professor Vasciannie has served, at different times, as the President of the University of Technology, Jamaica, and as Principal of the Norman Manley Law School.

In the international arena, Professor Vasciannie has been Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States of America and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), based in Washington, D.C.. In that latter capacity, he has been Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OAS as well as the Chairman of the Legal and Juridical Committee of the OAS. He has also represented Jamaica on the Inter-American Juridical Committee of the OAS, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has chaired the Caribbean Conference on Maritime Delimitation.

Prior to taking up the post of Jamaican Ambassador to the USA, Professor Vasciannie served for five years as a member of the Geneva-based United Nations International Law Commission, working with other experts on the codification and progressive development of International Law.

Professor Vasciannie has also served, on a part-time basis, as a Deputy Solicitor General of Jamaica, working in the Attorney-General's Chambers. There, he was Director of the International Division of the Chambers, assisting in the provision of legal advice on a range of international law and other public law issues and taking part in litigation before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Professor Vasciannie holds the Jamaica national honour of Order of Distinction (Commander Class).

Research

Prof. Vasciannie’s research is concerned with the large area of International Law. He addresses international and domestic questions of public importance and consistently emphasizes Caribbean perspectives and points of emphasis within International Law. He has written four books and more than 40 journal articles, book chapters and monographs, published through international, regional and local outlets. His most recent book is Caribbean Essays on Law and Policy (2020) which contains substantial essays on a range of international and domestic topics of public importance. Such topics include diplomatic immunity, with a focus on reviewing Jamaican State Practice; the reform of the Inter-American Human Rights System, with specific regard toa Caribbean perspective; the Montego Bay Convention on the Law of the Sea, with a focus on Jamaica and the rule of law; constitutional change in Jamaica; race and society in Jamaica.

Publications

Books:

S. Vasciannie, Caribbean Essays on Law and Policy (University of Technology: Jamaica Press 2020).

S. Vasciannie, Land-Locked and Geographically Disadvantaged States in the International Law of the Sea (OUP 1990).

Chapters in Books:

S. Vasciannie, Deep Seabed Mining’ in Ascencio-Herrera & Nordquist (eds), The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Part XI Regime and the International Seabed Authority: A Twenty-Five Year Journey (Brill 2022) 64-81.

S. Vasciannie, 'The Appellate Jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice', in Richard Albert, Derek O’Brien, and Se-shauna Wheatle (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Constitutions, Oxford Handbooks (Oxford 2020).

Articles:

S. Vasciannie, Advisory Opinion of the Caribbean Court of Justice in Response to a Request from the Caribbean Community (Caribbean Ct. J.). (2020) International Legal Materials, 59(4), 708-738. doi:10.1017/ilm.2020.40.

S. Vasciannie, ‘The fair and equitable treatment standard in international investment law’, (2018) Yearbook of the International Law Commission 2011, Vol. II, Part 2, 202-210.

S. Vasciannie, 'The fair and equitable treatment standard in international investment law', Report of the International Law Commission 2011, 335-50.

S Vasciannie, ‘The Constitution and the rule of law: some recent developments in Jamaica’, (2009) Commonwealth Law Bulletin, 35(1), 55-67.

Kirton, Allan G., and S. Vasciannie. ‘DEEP SEABED MINING UNDER THE LAW OF THE SEA CONVENTION AND THE IMPLEMENTATION AGREEMENT: DEVELOPING COUNTRY PERSPECTIVES.’ (2002) Social and Economic Studies 51(2), 63–115.

S. Vasciannie, Part XI of the Law of the Sea Convention and Third States: Some General Observations. (1989) The Cambridge Law Journal, 48(1), 85-97.

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The University of the West Indies, Mona

Faculty of Law

Prof.
Stephen
Vasciannie

Staff Profile Tabs

Online Systems

Student Services

Registration & Fees

Online Support

Faculty of Law

Prof.StephenVasciannie

Staff Profile Tabs

Prof.
Stephen
Vasciannie