Sarah Heathcote’s research and teaching focus on core areas of public international law and the law of international organizations, including aspects of international development law. She has participated in consultancies for law firms and international institutions.

Prior to joining ANU Law in 2008, she taught for almost a decade in Geneva, first at the Department of Public International Law and International Organization at the University of Geneva’s Law Faculty and then for Boston University.

At the ANU College of Law she teaches or has taught, in addition to courses in general international law, International Investment Law, the Law of International Institutions, as well as International Law and the Use of Force; and has published on these and related matters.

She has taught and given papers at many foreign universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Université libre de Bruxelles and Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). She holds a Masters and a PhD from Geneva.

Appointments

• Deputy Director, Centre for International and Public Law (CIPL), ANU College of Law, The Australian National University (until March 2019)
• Convenor, International Law stream, Post-Graduate Program, ANU College of Law, The Australian National University (until 2018)

Significant research publications

Books:

• LexisNexis Workbook: Public International Law, LexisNexis Butterworths, Australia, 2019, 132p.
• The ICJ and the Evolution of International Law: The Enduring Impact of the Corfu Channel Case, Routledge (co-editors Th. Christakis and K. Bannelier), Routledge, UK, 2012, 377p.

Also in paperback from 2013.

Book Chapters, Articles and other Contributions to Collected Works:

• ‘Legal Models and Methods of Western Colonisation of the South Pacific’ Journal of the History of International Law vol. 24:1 (2022), pp. 62-101
• ‘State Responsibility, International Law and the Covid19 Crisis’ Australian Year Book of International Law vol. 39 (2021), pp. 122-140.
• ‘Secession, Self-determination and Territorial Disagreements. Sovereignty Claims in the Contemporary South Pacific’ Leiden Journal of International Law vol. 34:3 (2021) pp. 653-680.
• ‘Pacific Islands Forum’ Oxford Database International Organizations (OXIO), 2018, available at https://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law-oxio/e8.013.1/law-oxio-e8?rskey...
• ‘Article 10: Traités prévoyant la participation d’un Etat successeur’ G. Distefano & G. Gagglioli (eds.), Commentaire à la Convention de Vienne sur la Succession d’Etats en matière de traités (1978), Bruylant, 2016, p. 339-372.
• ‘State of Necessity’, Oxford Bibliographies in “International Law”, ed., Tony Carty, New York: Oxford University Press, 15 January 2014, http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199796953/obo-...
• ‘State Omissions and Due Diligence in International Law: Aspects of Fault, Damage and Contribution to Injury in the Law of State Responsibility’ in S. Heathcote, Th. Christakis, K. Bannelier (eds.), The ICJ and the Evolution of International Law: The Enduring Impact of the Corfu Channel Case, Routledge, UK, 2012, p. 295-314;
• ‘Article 42: Validity and Continuation in Force of Treaties’, O. Corten & P. Klein (eds.), The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties: Article by Article Commentary, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, p. 1015-1030 (co-author Marcelo G. Kohen).
• ‘Article 45: Loss of a Right to Invoke a Ground for Invalidity, Terminating or Withdrawing from or Suspending the Operation of a Treaty”, O. Corten & P. Klein (eds.), The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties: Article by Article Commentary, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, p. 1064-1089 (co-author Marcelo G. Kohen)
• ‘Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness in the ILC Articles on State Responsibility: Necessity’, J. Crawford, A. Pellet, S. Olleson (eds.), The Law of International Responsibility, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010, pp. 491-501.
• ‘Est-ce que l’état de nécessité est un principe de droit international coutumier ?’ 2007/1 Revue belge de droit international pp.53-89 ;
• ‘La nécessité en common law’ Actes de la Société française pour le droit international (Grenoble 2006), Paris, Pedone, 2007, pp.97-108.
• ‘Mise en œuvre de la réparation des crimes de l’histoire : une possible [ré]conciliation des temps passés, présents et futurs ?’, L. Boisson de Chazournes, J.-F. Queguiner, S. Villalpando (eds.) Les réparations pour crimes de l’histoire, Bruylant, Brussels, 2004, pp.99-130 (co-author L. Boisson de Chazournes).
• ‘Les biens publics mondiaux et le droit international : Quelques réflexions à propos de la gestion de l’intérêt commun’ 13 Observateur des Nations Unies (2002), pp. 137-161.
• ‘The Role of the New International Adjudicator’, Proceedings of the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Washington D.C., 2001, 129 (co-author L. Boisson de Chazournes):

Media:

• 13 May 2020, ‘State Responsibility under International Law and the COVID19 Crisis’, International Law and COVID19 ANU Law https://law.anu.edu.au/research/essay/covid-19-international-law
• 6 December 2013, ‘Explainer: Australia and Timor Leste in The Hague’ The Conversation, http://theconversation.com/explainer-australia-and-timor-leste-in-the-ha...

Other

• State of Necessity and International Law, PhD Thesis No. 772, University of Geneva, 2005, 506 pages.

View more publications on the ANU Researchers website