prof. dr. Nikolas Rajkovic

Bio

Nikolas M. Rajkovic is Professor and Chair of International Law at Tilburg University (The Netherlands), and is the former Head of the Department of Public Law and Governance (PLG). He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Law Department of the European University Institute (Italy). Nikolas is senior faculty, and an Academic Council, member of the Harvard Law School's Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP). His current research is at the intersection of International Law, International Relations, and Critical Geography.  He is writing a new book forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in 2025: A Critical Geography of International Law: Theorizing Spaces of Global Authority. Previously, Nikolas has been an Adjunct Professor in International Law and International Relations at Kyung Hee University (South Korea), and Adjunct in Transnational Law at the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada). 

Expertise

Nikolas' research and teaching spans Public International Law, International Legal Theory, International Relations Theory, International Criminal Law, the Law of Armed Conflict and Transnational Law. His work has been published by leading journals and publishers across both disciplinary International Law and International Relations: notably Cambridge University Press, the European Journal of International Relations, and the Leiden Journal of International Law. His output has been cited in publications across 6 disciplinary fields: Administrative Sciences, Geography, International Law; International Relations; Political Science; and Tax Law. Nikolas' current research examines the under-analyzed influence of geographic theories and cartography for how international lawyers visualize boundary practices and international authority.

Teaching

In 2023, Nikolas was awarded a "Best Teacher Award" by the undergraduate and graduate students of Tilburg Law School. In 2019, Nikolas was awarded "Most Inspiring Lecturer".  2017, he was nominated for awards in three categories: “best teacher overall”; “best teacher-understanding society”; and “teacher with best substantive lectures.”

Courses

• Publ. Intern. Law: Continu. and Transf.
• International Law
• International Law
• Int. Relations: Power, Law and Glob. Gov

Recent publications

1. Performing “legality” in the theatre of hostilities - Asymmetric conf…

   Rajkovic, N. (2020). Performing “legality” in the theatre of hostilities: Asymmetric conflict, lawfare and the rise of vicarious litigation. San Diego International Law Journal, 21(2), 435-456.

2. What is a "grave" international crime? - The Rome Statute, Durkheim a…

   Rajkovic, N. (2020). What is a "grave" international crime? The Rome Statute, Durkheim and the sociology of ruling outrages. Loyola University Chicago International Law Review, 16(1).

3. Interdisciplinarity

   Rajkovic, N. (2019). Interdisciplinarity. In J. D'Aspremont, & S. Singh (Eds.), Concepts for international law: Contributions to disciplinary thought (pp. 490-504). Edward Elgar.

4. International law and the ides of March - A response to David Kennedy

   Rajkovic, N. (2018). International law and the ides of March: A response to David Kennedy. Tilburg Law Review: Journal on international and comparative law, 23(1-2), 121-124.

5. The visual conquest of international law - Brute boundaries, the map …

   Rajkovic, N. (2018). The visual conquest of international law: Brute boundaries, the map and the legacy of cartogenesis. Leiden Journal of International Law, 31(2), 267-288.