Sara DEZALAY
Professor of political science, Head of the master International & Security Politics
sara.dezalay(at)univ-catholille.fr
Biography
Sara Dezalay is Professor at ESPOL. Prior to joining the School, she was a Reader at the Cardiff School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University.
She is also an Associate researcher at the Institut des Mondes Africains (IMAF); member of the editorial committee of Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales ; Associate editor of Law & Social Inquiry ; and member of the International Affairs Committee, Law and Society Association.
In 2020-2022, she was an adjunct judge, appointed by the UNHCR, at the Cour nationale du droit d’asile (French national court for asylum seekers).
She holds a PhD in Laws from the European University Institute.
Sara Dezalay’s current research focuses on the roles played by law and lawyers in negotiating and justifying the uneven and unequal relationship between the African South and the world economy. Deploying a research strategy combining political sociology of law and global history, she adopts a multi-scalar approach, examining dynamics of legal, social and political change at the domestic level (in Burundi, the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire) and on the international scene (politics and practices of intervention; international dispute settlement mechanisms; transnational advocacy; transnational litigation strategies).
In 2022-2024 she is also the co-PI, with Sharon Weill (American University of Paris), of a 30,000 Euro grant by the Mission droit et justice (French Justice Ministry) to conduct a multi-disciplinary and comparative study of asylum justice in France, Greece and the UK.
LANGUAGES SPOKEN
French and English
CLASSES TAUGHT AT ESPOL
- Politics of international law (L2 RI)
- Introduction to Public International Law (L1 RI)
- Politics of international law (M2)
- Public international law (M1 ISP)
RESEARCH FIELDS
International law; political sociology; global history
RESEARCH THEMES
- Global justice institutions (inter-state adjudication; investment arbitration; international criminal justice; strategic litigation; asylum justice)
- Humanitarian and peace-building professional markets
- Legal professions (Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC)
PUBLICATIONS
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5434-3613
Cairn: www.cairn.info/publications-de-Sara-Dezalay–21050.htm
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Coordination of volumes and peer-reviewed special issues
| 2022 | Bourdieu, J., Dezalay, S., Duval, J., Heilbron, J. and Poupeau, F. Qui a peur des sciences sociales? 243-244 Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales |
| 2021 | Ballakrishnen, S. and Dezalay, S. Invisible Institutionalisms. Collective Reflections on the Shadows of Legal Globalization (Hart Publishing) |
| 2020 | Dezalay, S. Wars on law, Wars through law? Socio-legal perspectives on the contemporary relationship between law and exception 47Journal of Law and Society Issue S1 |
| 2015 | Dezalay, S., with the contribution of G. Karekwaivanane Juristes. Faiseurs d’État 138 Politique africaine, 134 p. |
Articles in peer-reviewed journals
| 2021 | Dezalay S. “Le Barreau africain de Paris: entre ‘Big Bang’ sur le marché du droit des affaires et sillons d’Empire”, Cultures & Conflits, 119(12), pp. 71-97 |
| 2020 | Dezalay, S. “From the ‘War on Terror’ to law as/versus exception in the trajectory of the state and globalization” Journal of Law and Society, 47, S1, pp. 1-13 |
| 2019 | Dezalay, S. “Lawyers and the ‘new extraction’ in Africa”, International Journal of Socio-Economics, 46(11), pp. 1305-1318 |
| 2018 | Dezalay, S. “Lawyers in Africa: Brokers of the State, Intermediaries of Globalization. A Case Study of the “Africa” Bar in Paris”, International Journal of Global Legal Studies, 25(2), pp. 639-669 |
| 2017 | Dezalay, S. “L’Afrique contre la Cour Pénale Internationale: Éléments de socio-genèse sur les possibles de la justice internationale”, Politique africaine, 146, pp. 165-182 |
| Dezalay, S. “Lawyers’ Empire in the (African) colonial margins”, International journal of the legal profession, 24(1), pp. 25-32 | |
| Levi, R., Dezalay, S. and Amiraslani, M. “Prosecutorial Strategies and Opening Statements: Justifying International Prosecutions from the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg through to the International Criminal Court”, Comparativ: Journal for Global History and Comparative Social Science, 26, pp. 58-72 | |
| 2016 | Dezalay, S. “Weakness as routine in the operations of the International Criminal Court”, International Criminal Law Review, 17, pp. 1-21 |
| Dezalay, S. “Répondre aux crises. Dynamiques de ‘gestion de crises’ par l’instrument: de la Commission européenne aux réformes de la justice au Burundi”, Gouvernement & action publique, 5(2), pp. 31-50 | |
| Levi, R., Hagan, J. and Dezalay, S. “International Courts in Atypical Political Environments: The Interplay of Prosecutorial Strategy, Evidence, and Court Authority in International Criminal Law”, Law and Contemporary Problems, 78(4), pp. 289-314 | |
| 2015 | Dezalay, S. “Les juristes en Afrique: entre trajectoires d’État, sillons d’Empire et mondialisation”, Politique africaine, 138, pp. 5-23 |
Chapters in edited volumes
| 2022 | Dezalay, S. “Africa’s lawyers: from imperial agents to legal brokers on global markets”, in R. Abel and H. Sommerlad, with U. Schultz & O. Hammerslev (eds.), Lawyers in 21st century societies. Vol. II: Comparisons and theories (Hart Publishing), pp. 51-72 |
| 2021
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Dezalay, S. “Law firms and international adjudication”, Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law |
| Ballakrishnen, S. and Dezalay, S. “Introduction: law, globalisation and the shadows of legal globalisation”, in Ballakrishnen S. and Dezalay, S. (eds.), Invisible Institutionalisms. Collective reflections on the shadows of legal globalisation (Hart Publishing), pp. 1-24 | |
| Dezalay, S. and Ballakrishnen, S. “Conclusion: reading between the lines”, in Ballakrishnen S. and Dezalay, S. (eds.), Invisible Institutionalisms. Collective reflections on the shadows of legal globalisation (Hart Publishing), pp. 267-278 | |
| 2020 | Dezalay, S. “Désastre humain et environnemental au prétoire: une perspective socio-politique », in H. Muir Watt, D. Fernandez Arroyo, L. Bizikova & A. Brandao de Oliveira (eds.), Le tournant global en droit international privé: jurisprudence sans frontière, Pedone, pp. 761-770 |
| Dezalay, S. and Kroll, S. “The authority of international justice institutions: A sociological perspective on global normative orders”, in Ketteman, M. C. Navigating the Frontiers of Normative Orders, Campus Verlag, pp. 183-206 | |
| Dezalay, S. “Africa against global justice? Stakes for building a political sociology on the futures of international criminal justice”, in Weill, S. Thuy Seelinger, K. and Carlson, K. B. (eds.), Prosecuting the President: The trial of Hissen Habré, Oxford University Press, pp. 219-232 | |
| Dezalay, S. “Burundi. Middlemen and Opponents in the Shadow of the Ethno-State”, in R. Abel and H. Sommerlad, avec U. Schultz & O. Hammerslev (eds.), Lawyers in 21st century societies. Vol. I: National reports, Hart Publishing, pp. 473-493 | |
| Dezalay, S. “The ‘Africa Bar’ in Paris: Extractive economies and connected histories of globalization”, in C. Greenhouse and C. Davis (eds.), Landscapes of Law: Practicing Sovereignty in Transnational Terrain, University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 134-178 | |
| 2019 | Dezalay, S. “From International Justice and Statebuilding to International Justice as Statebuilding”, in N. Lemay-Hebert (ed.), Handbook on Intervention and Statebuilding, Edward Elgar, pp. 287-301 |
| Dezalay, S. “Building an Environmental and Human Disaster into a Transnational Case: a Socio-Political Perspective”, in Muir Watt, H., Fernandez Arroyo, D., Bizikova, L. and Brandao de Oliveira, A. (eds.), Adjudicating without frontiers. The global turn in private international law, Elgar, pp. 93-102 | |
| Dezalay, S. “Der internationale Gerichtshof zwischen symbolischem Wachstum und wirtschaftlicher Krise”, in Kretschmann, A. (ed.). Das Rechtsdenken Pierre Bourdieus, Velbrück, pp. 222-239 | |
| 2018 | Dezalay, S. “Fatoumata Dembélé Diarra. Trajectory of a Malian magistrate and civil society advocate to the International Criminal Court”, in Kuenyehia, A. et Dawuni, J. (eds.), African Women Judges on African courts. Untold stories, Routledge, pp. 77-97 |
| Levi, R., Hagan, J. et Dezalay, S. “Chapter 15: International Criminal Tribunals: Prosecutorial Strategies in Atypical Political Environments”, in Alter, K. J., Helfer, J.R. and Rask Madsen, M. (eds.), International Court Authority, Oxford University Press, pp. 342-362 | |
| Levi, R., Dezalay, S. and Amiraslani, M. “Prosecutorial Strategies and Opening Statements: Justifying International Prosecutions from the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg through to the International Criminal Court”, in Levi, R. and Christensen, M. J. (eds.), International practices of criminal law: Social and legal perspectives, Routledge, pp. 89-107 | |
| 2017 | Dezalay, S. “Professionals of international justice. From the shadow of state diplomacy to the pull of the market of arbitration” with the contribution of Y. Dezalay, in Nollkaemper, A., d’Aspremont, J., Werner, W. and Gazzini, T. (eds.), International Law as a Profession, Cambridge University Press, pp. 287-310 |
| Dezalay, S. “The role of international NGOs in the emergence of the field of transitional justice : a case-study of the International Center for Transitional Justice”, in Lawther, C., Moffett, L. and Jacobs, D. (eds.), Research Handbook on Transitional Justice, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 202-220 | |
| Dezalay, S. “La Commission européenne et les crises. Éléments de sociogenèse d’un marché européen de la pacification”, in Bazin, A. and Tenenbaum, C. (eds.), L’Union européenne et la paix. L’invention d’un modèle européen de gestion des conflits, Presses de Sciences-Po, pp. 17-37 |