Catherine (Kiki) Brölmann is an associate professor of international law at the Department of International Law, and  a research fellow at the Amsterdam Center for International Law. She is Director of the PhD Programme in Law at the UvA.

In 2023-2024 Brölmann is visiting professor at the law school of Sorbonne university. Since 2019 she has been visiting professor of international law at Université Lyon 3.  In 2023 she completed her last term as member and vice-chair of the national Advisory Committee for Public International Law (CAVV). 

She holds a degree in law (LL.M and PhD, UvA) and in Italian and Romance Literature Studies (MA, UvA). Other legal formation includes a diploma of the University of Helsinki Summer Seminar.

Research

In her work, Brölmann focuses on the theory and practice of general international law, international organization(s), international lawmaking processes including the formal framework of treaty-making, interaction between legal regimes, collective rights, and the global law and governance of freshwater resources. On these themes she has also supervised and examined a number of PhD theses.  

She is co-editor-in-chief of Oxford International Organizations (OXIO); editor on the board of the  International Community Law Review; member of the Scientific Board of the International Law Book Series with Editoriale Scientifica, and of the International Board of Editors of the  Polish Review of International and European Law. She is currently a delegate member of the International Law Association Studygroup on International Law of Regional Organisations.

Brölmann has held research fellowships at the Lauterpacht Centre, University of Cambridge; at Queen Mary College, University of London; at the University of Bologna, and at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin. In 2012, she was awarded a grant from the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of Bologna, which allowed her to work on notions of communality in international law during an extended research residency.

She has worked for an extensive period on secondment to the legal division of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Theory and practice of international law have also been combined in her work a.o. as an external legal advisor to  the NGO Both Ends; as a member of the Board of Directors of WaterLex (Geneva); as an expert to the Court of Appeal in The Hague; and as an external legal expert to the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) on modifications in the OTIF constitutive treaty.

Selected Publications

SSRN author page http://ssrn.com/author=408220 

• ‘Transparency as a Contested Fundamental in the Law of International Organizations’, 20 International Organizations Law Review 2023, 10-27.
• ‘International Organizations and the Disaggregation of Consent’ in S Besson, Consenting to international law, ASIL International Legal Theory series - Cambridge CUP 2023, 116-134 [forthcoming].
• ‘Treaties, Provisional Application’ in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (OUP 2020), with Guido den Dekker.
• 'Specialized Rules of Treaty Interpretation: International Organizations’,  in D Hollis (ed), The Oxford Guide to Treaties (OUP 2012), fully revised chapter for second edition (OUP 2020).
• 'Capturing the Juridical Will of International Organizations' in Jean d’Aspremont and Sufyan Droubi (eds), International Organizations and the Formation of Customary International Law (Manchester University Press, 2020)
• ‘Personality’ in J d’Aspremont & S Singh (eds), Concepts for International Law ‐ Contributions to Disciplinary Thought (London, Edward Elgar, 2019), with J Nijman
• ‘Sustainable Development Goal 6 as a Game Changer for International Water Law’, European Society of International Law Reflection Vol. 7, Issue 5, 2018
• “Typologies and the ‘Essential Juridical Character’ of Treaties” in M Bowman and D Kritsiotis (eds), Conceptual and Contextual Perspectives on the Modern Law of Treaties (Cambridge University Press 2018)
• ‘The Law of Treaties before Domestic Courts’, in PA Nollkaemper, A Reinisch, R Janik & F Simlinger (eds), International Law in Domestic Courts (Oxford University Press 2018), with C Binder. 
• Research Handbook on the Theory and Practice of International Lawmaking (London, Edward Elgar Publishers, 2016), with Y Radi (eds).
• The 1980 ICJ advisory opinion on Interpretation of the Agreement of 25 March 1951 between the WHO and Egypt, in I Dekker, C Ryngaert, R Wessel, J Wouters (eds) Leading Judicial Decisions of the Law of International Organizations (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• “Member States and International Legal Responsibility: Developments of the Institutional Veil”, 12 (2015) International Organizations Law Review 358-381
• ‘The PCIJ and International Rights of Groups and Individuals’, in Chr Tams & M Fitzmaurice,  Legacies of the Permanent Court of International Justice (Leiden-Boston, Martinus Nijhoff, 2013), 123-143
• CM Brölmann & A Tanzi (eds), Community and Sovereignty : Transboundary Aquifers and International Law (Brill, 2011 - Special Issue of the ICLRev vol. 13)
• 'International Organizations and Treaties: Contractual Freedom and Institutional Constraint' in J Klabbers (ed.), Research Handbook on International Organizations, London, Elgar Publishers, 2011, 285-312 
• 'Challenging International Criminal Tribunals before Domestic Courts', in A Reinisch (ed.), Challenges of Acts of International Organizations before National Courts (Oxford University Press, 2010), 111-136 (with J d'Aspremont)  
• The Institutional Veil in Public International Law: International Organisations and the Law of Treaties, Oxford , Hart Publishers, 2007 [see link below] -- (Reviews include the European JIL,  American JIL, Netherlands JIL, the Journal of Conflict and Security Law) 
• 'Deterritorialization in International Law : Moving away from the Divide between National and International Law' in J Nijman & A Nollkaemper, New Perspectives on the Divide between National and International Law, Oxford University Press, 2007, 84-109.
• 'A Flat Earth? International Organizations in the System of International Law', in  International Organizations , Series: Library of Essays in International Law, Ashgate, 2006, 183-206 (reprint from the Nordic Journal of IL)
• 'Beyond state sovereignty: The Human Right to water' in 5 Non-State actors and International Law 2005, 183-208 (with Th Kiefer).
• 'Law-Making Treaties: Form and Function in International Law', 74 Nordic Journal of International Law 2005, Issue 3, 383-404
• 'Limits to the Treaty Paradigm' in M Craven & M Fitzmaurice (eds.), Interrogating the Treaty: Essays in the Contemporary Law ofTreaties , Wolf Legal Publishers, 2005, 28-39

Selected Blogs & Op-eds

Teaching

Currently teaching at the UVA in Internationaal Publiekrecht (BA); International Organization (LL.M); Principles & Foundations of International Law (LL.M). Other focal areas in teaching are International Lawmaking; the Law of Treaties; Law & Practice of the United Nations, International Water Law; the EU as an global actor.

Visiting and associate lectureships include Queen Mary college, University of London; University of Leiden; University of Helsinki; Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam; University of Bologna; Université Lyon III; Yeditepe University of  Istanbul; Nederlandse Academie voor Wetgeving // Netherlands Academy for Legislation; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - Sorbonne Law School.