Professor Alexander Orakhelashvili

• LLB (Tbilisi State University), 1997
• LLM (Leiden), 2000
• PhD (Cantab.), 2005

Professor Orakhelashvili obtained his first law degree from Tbilisi State University in 1997, his master’s degree from Leiden University in 2000 and his PhD from Cambridge University in 2005, and joined the School of Law in September 2009. Previously, he was Shaw Foundation Junior Research Fellow in Law at Jesus College, Oxford (2005-2008). He has taught and supervised in public international law and armed conflicts law at the universities of Cambridge (2003-2004), London (2003-2005) and Oxford (2005-2008).

• Public International Law (LLM, module leader)
• International Dispute Resolution (LLB final year, module leader)
• Public International Law (LLB final year)
• Legal theory (LLB)
• Issues in International Criminal Justice (LLM)

Professor Orakhelashvili has supervised or is currently supervising doctoral students undertaking research in the following areas:
• Aut dedere aut judicare as a customary rule
• The UN member states and individuals sharing international responsibility for the serious violation of international law committed during peace support operations
• Iran and Nuclear non-proliferation
• John Austin’s theory of law
• Implications of New Technology for Targeting under International Humanitarian Law

Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Professor Orakhelashvili’s research focuses on all areas of public international law. He has published 11 books, including 7 sole-authored monographs, a textbook and 3 edited collections. An expanded version of his doctoral thesis has been published as Peremptory Norms in International Law (OMIL, OUP 2006, paperback 2008, 657 pages), which is the first and so far the only comprehensive study of the complex phenomenon of peremptory norms in the international legal system. This was followed by

• The Interpretation of Acts and Rules in Public International Law (OMIL, OUP 2008, 620 pages), which is first and so far the only comprehensive work on interpretation encompassing not only international treaties but also other international legal acts such as unilateral declarations, reservations, Security Council resolutions and declarations accepting the International Court’s jurisdiction.
• the first ever comprehensive monograph on Collective Security (OUP, 2011), a comprehensive study of the operation of universal and regional security institutions and their dynamic mutual interaction.
• Domesticating Kelsen – Towards the Pure Theory of English Law (Edward Elgar), a study of Kelsen's pure theory of law as applied to English legal system and demonstrates the pure theory's full suitability to examine pertinent issues arising in English law, despite the long-standing doctrinal scepticism on this matter.
• International Law and International Politics – Foundations of Interdisciplinary Analysis (Edward Elgar, 2020, 320pp), which examines ultimate systemic foundations of international affairs that determine the practical dynamics of both international law and international politics.
• Causation in International Law (Elgar 2022), the only comprehensive study of this phenomenon through the prism of international legal reasoning.
• The Essence and reality of Statehood: Effectiveness, Recognition and Legitimacy (Elgar 2025) - a comprehensive and inter-disciplinary study of the development of fundamental ideas that underlie the modern concept of statehood in the discourse and practice of international law.

Professor Orakhelashvili has also published three edited collections and contributed about 90 articles and chapters to leading journals, yearbooks and edited collections. His work has been repeatedly cited by judges in national and international courts, for instance in 2004 by Mance LJ (as he then was) in the Court of Appeal decision on Jones v Saudi Arabia, as well as the Australian High Court, the International Court of Justice, European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights.

He authored the 8th and 9th editions of Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law (2018 and 2022, respectively),  one of the UK's leading international law textbooks.

• International law stream leader, LLM programme
• Professor Orakhelashvili is a member of editorial boards of the Journal of the Use of Force in International Law and of Jus Gentium: A Journal of International Legal History.