Professor of international law at the University of Helsinki and director of the Erik Castrén Institute for International Law and Human Rights. He was part of the Finnish diplomatic service between 1978 and 1994 and of the United Nations International Law Commission from 2002 to 2006. He is a member of the Institut de Droit International and the British Academy. A must-read author, Koskenniemi is probably the most inspiring and influential contemporary theorist in international law. Among his main works, it is worth highlighting From Apology to Utopia. The Structure of International Legal Argument (1989, 2005), The Gentle Civilizer of Nations. The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (2001) and the collection of essays The Politics of International Law (Trotta, 2020).