PhD Thesis

Title: “The Role of the Object and Purpose in Treaty Law”

PhD Supervisor: Marcelo Kohen, Andrew Clapham and Fernando Lusa Bordin

Expected completion date: 2026

The number of international agreements agreed upon by states grows from year to year, thus incrementally shaping our lives. Within the realm of treaties, a notion having an unsuspected impact on the operation of international treaties is the notion of object and purpose (O&P). The O&P is enshrined in multiple provisions in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT, 1969) and the Vienna Conventions of 1978 and 1986. This notion is best known as an element to be considered at the time of interpreting a treaty. Apart from interpretation itself, the identification of the O&P also determines whether states can undertake specific actions, e.g., whether they can suspend or terminate a treaty, whether they can register reservations, whether a newly independent state will ipso jure become party to treaties that were in force before its independence, and so forth.

The scholarship on treaty law is one of the wealthiest fields of international law, yet the treatment of the O&P remains either superficial or fragmentary. However, this notion has the potential to wield surprising power and influence in hermeneutics and treaties’ operation more broadly. Given the treatment of the O&P so far in international legal theory, this research project aims to assess and clarify the importance, role, uses, and treatment of the notion of O&P by assessing, first, the practice of international courts and tribunals and, second, that of states. The project aims not only to theorise what the treatment of the O&P should be but also to analyse and report the state of positive law vis-à-vis the O&P and interpretation. One of the broader objectives of this thesis is to contribute to providing more legal stability and increasing the understanding of interpreters, practitioners and states of the notion of O&P, as well as guiding and guiding them at the time of applying, interpreting and terminating treaties.
 

Profile

André-Philippe Ouellet is an international law PhD Candidate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, a Swiss National Science Foundation Doc. Ch researcher and a doctoral fellow of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. His PhD research focuses on the notion and role of the object and purpose in treaty law (operation, interpretation and termination).

André-Philippe completed stays as a visiting researcher at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, at Harvard Law School and at the Lauterpacht Centre, Cambridge University (King’s College). He was Mahmoud Hmoud's legal assistant while he chaired the International Law Commission and he worked for law professors in Geneva and Montreal.

André-Philippe also coached the Graduate Institute’s Jessup team in 2021, 2022, and 2023 and remains involved in organizing the Charles Rousseau Moot Court Competition, which he won in 2019. His publications and communications (in English, French, and Spanish) mostly cover international economic law, international organisations, and human rights law, including self-determination.
 

Research Interests
 

• Public International Law
• International Economic Law
• Treaty Interpretation
• Treaty Regimes
• International Organizations
• Territorial and Maritime Dispute
• Sovereignty
• Self-Determination

Relevant Publications and Works
 

• "A Transcivilizational Call to Factor in the Practice of Asian States and Peoples in Customary International Law and Treaty Interpretation: Conscientious Objection as a Case Study" (2025) 1 Asian Journal of International Law.
• "The ICJ and the Protection of Foreign Property Under Customary International Law: Quid Novi?" (2025) 16 Journal of International Dispute Settlement 1.
• "Decolonisation and Self-Determination à Géométrie Variable: The Forgotten Vicissitudes of Post-Soviet Peoples” (2024) 66 German Yearbook of International Law 61.
• “The International Energy Agency at 50: The Astounding Environmental Shift From an Organization Focused on Fossil Energy Supply to a Clean Energy Authority” (2025) in G. Marceau and H. Gött (eds), International Organization Initiatives: How and Why Organizations Adapt and Change, Oxford University Press, 238. 
• "Les organisations internationales et les moyens de leur pertinence : le cas de l’ONU, du FMI et de l’OMC" (March-April 2024), 126 Diplomatie Magazine. 
• “Le droit du développement, un cheminement bien personnel : évolution et accroissement de ce corpus de normes à la Banque mondiale grâce aux initiatives d’anciens Présidents du groupe de la Banque mondiale” (2024) (With G. Marceau) in P-F. Mercure, et al. (eds.) Le droit international du développement : évolution ou révolution? Hommage au professeur Hervé Cassan, Paris, Pedone, 29.
• "Vladimir-Đuro Degan" (2023), in F. Latty (ed.), Galerie des internationalistes, Société française pour le droit international. Available: https://sfdi.org/internationalistes/degan/
• “IGOs’ Initiatives in Times of Crisis and Unforeseen Needs” (2022) (With N. Bonucci, G. Marceau and R. Walker), 19:2 International Organization Law Review 423.
• “Assisting Uzbekistan’s Parliament with Specific Issues Pertaining to Uzbekistan’s WTO Accession Process” (with I. Baftijari and A. Lim) TradeLab/Graduate Institute Papers. 
•  “L’objet et le but particulier en matière d’interprétation” (2021) Graduate Institute, Sup. Pr. M. Kohen. Unpublished.
• “L’exception de sécurité du GATT sous le prisme des surtaxes américaines sur l’acier et l’aluminium : une analyse à l’aune du rapport du Groupe spécial dans l’affaire Russie—Trafic en transit” (2019) (with M. Foucault and S. Warnier) 32:2 Quebec Journal of International Law 243. 
• “L’échapper belle, AMPA ou MPIA : Quatre lettres au secours du système de règlement des différends à l’OMC” (2019) (with N. Gervais) 32:2 QJIL 29. 
• Book Review, Malgosia Fitzmaurice and Panos Merkouris, Treaties in Motion: The Evolution of Treaties From Formation to Termination, (2021) 58 CYIL 658.
   

Events
 

• Organisation of the International Law Theme Day: Seminar in Treaty Law & Colloquium — The Law of Treaties and Teleology, 21 November 2024. Sponsors : Swiss National Science Foundation,  Conférence universitaire de Suisse occidentale, Global Governance Centre (IHEID) and International Law Department (IHEID). 
• Co-organisation of the LCIL Roundtables 2024 (Easter Term) of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (together with James Simeon et Yacouba-Sylla Koïta). 
• Co-organizer of a Symposium on “Initiatives of Intergovernmental Organizations as a Response to Crises and Unforeseen Needs” (with N. Bonucci, G. Marceau and R. Walker), University of Geneva, 28–29 August 2022.
  
   

COMMUNICATIONS
 

• “A Call to Factor in the Practice of Asian States and Peoples in International Law: Conscientious Objection as a Case Study” (final draft), re·inst, séminaire doctoral 2024-2025. Le droit international des regions, Collège de France, Paris, June 2025. 
• “The International Energy Agency at 50: The Astounding Environmental Shift From an Organization Focused on Fossil Energy Supply to a Clean Energy Authority”, OUP book launch International Organization Initiatives, University of Geneva, June 2025. 
• “The three functions of the Object and Purpose”, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law Roundtables, University of Cambridge, Lent Term 2024. 
• “A Call to Factor in the Practice of Asian States and Peoples in International Law: Conscientious Objection as a Case Study”, 21st Conference of the Asian Law Institute, The Future of Law, the Future of Asia, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok), May 2024. 
• “La noción de objeto y fin en el derecho de los tratados”, XXX Jornadas de la Asociación Española de Profesores de Derecho Internacional y Relaciones Internacionales, Taller doctoral, University of Las Palmas, September 2023.
• “On the (Continuing) Hostage Taking of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination by (Soviet) Russia”, Symposium Russia, Imperialism, and International Law at the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law, Kiel University, September 2023. 
• “The object and purpose notion and the role it plays in law’s resilience”, Interdisciplinary Law Conference Resilience and the Law in Times of Crisis at the University of British Columbia, presentation on , May 2023. 
• “The Object and Purpose in Treaty Law”, Cycle of Conferences of the Quebec Society of International Law, October 2022. 
• "La notion d’objet et le but en droit des traités", Doctoral Seminar of the Bureau des jeunes chercheurs of the Société française pour le droit international, Paris Sud University, Septembre 2022.
• “Le droit du développement, un cheminement bien personnel : évolution et accroissement de ce corpus de normes à la Banque mondiale grâce aux initiatives d’anciens Présidents du groupe de la Banque mondiale” (with G. Marceau), Le droit international du développement : évolution ou révolution ? Hommage au professeur Hervé Cassan, Sherbrooke University, Canada, May 2022.
• Podcast on the US tariffs on Steel and Aluminium (With P. Mavroidis, S. Warnier and M. Foucault), QJIL.
• Podcast on the role of the MPIA in the WTO (2021) (With the Canadian Mission in Geneva and the CISITI).
  
   

Fellowships, Grants and Awards
 

• 2025: Diploma of the Hague Academy of International Law
• 2024–2025: Albert Gallatin Fellowship in International Affairs,  Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation
• 2024: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Mobility Grant
• 2023: Scholarship of The Hague Academy of International Law for the 2024 Winter Courses
• 2022–2026: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Doc.CH Award
• 2022: Winner of the Daniel Turp Award for the Best Presentation in the 2022 Cycle of Student Conferences of the Quebec Society of International Law
• 2021–2025: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowships
• 2021: 3rd Rank - J.H. Jackson Moot Court Competition (IHEID team)
• 2019: Winner of Jacques-Yvan Morin PIL Essay Competition
• 2019: Winning team of Concours Rousseau Moot Court Competition (UQAM team)