Contact information
Tommaso Soave is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Legal Studies. His research focuses on international economic law, international dispute settlement, legal theory, and sociological approaches to global governance. Tommaso's first book, The Everyday Makers of International Law (CUP 2022), explores the socio-professional dynamics of the international legal community and assesses their impact on the rulings of international courts and tribunals. He has also published numerous papers in his areas of research.
Tommaso previously worked as a dispute settlement lawyer at the World Trade Organization and as an associate attorney at Sidley Austin LLP. He regularly serves as a consultant for intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations on matters of trade and investment law. In addition to his position at CEU, in 2022-2023 he will hold a visiting professor appointment at the University of Graz. Tommaso has earned degrees from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Harvard Law School, Sciences Po Paris, and the University of Turin, and has been called to the Bar of New York.
Selected publications
Monographs
The Everyday Makers of International Law: From Great Halls to Back Rooms (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Articles and book chapters
'The Power of Courtiers: Comparing International Judicial Communities', in J. Meierhenrich (ed.), The Cultural Study of International Law: Thick Descriptions of the International Criminal Court (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
'The Puzzle of Freedom: Structure and Agency in International Adjudication', in N. Mansouri and D. Quiroga-Villamarín (eds.), Ways of Seeing International Organisations: New Perspectives for International Institutional Law (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
'The Social Field of International Adjudication: Structures and Practices of a Conflictive Professional Universe', Leiden Journal of International Law (2023) [open access]
'The Myth of the Lone Judge: Comparing International Judicial Bureaucracies', 116 American Journal of International Law Unbound 373 (2022) [open access]
'Digital Humanitarians and International Lawyers: Worlds Apart or Two Sides of the Same Coin?', 25 Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 718 (2022)
'The Politics of Time in Domestic and International Lawmaking', in K. Polackova Van Der Ploeg et al. (eds.), International Law and Time: Narratives and Techniques (Springer, 2022)
'The Two Faces of the Invisible College: Cooperation and Competition in the International Judicial Community', EUI Department of Law Research Paper No. 2022/09 [open access]
'Who Controls WTO Dispute Settlement? Socio-Professional Practices and the Crisis of the Appellate Body’, 29 Italian Yearbook of International Law 13 (2020)
‘European Legal Culture and WTO Dispute Settlement: Thirty Years of Socio-Legal Transplants from Brussels to Geneva’, 19 The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 107 (2020)
‘The Politics of Invisibility: Why Are International Judicial Bureaucrats Obscured from View?’, in F. Baetens (ed.), Legitimacy of Unseen Actors in International Adjudication (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
‘Three Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: Political, Legal, and Institutional Perspectives on Pharmaceutical Patents and Access to Medicines’, 8 Trade Law and Development 137 (2016) [open access]
‘Jurisdictional Overlap in WTO Dispute Settlement and Investor–State Arbitration’, 30 Arbitration International 1 (2014) (with Brooks E. Allen)
Book reviews and shorter pieces
'Expert Ignorance: The Law and Politics of Rule of Law Reform (Deval Desai)', 100 International Affairs (forthcoming 2024)
'Of Squares, Spheres, and the Elusive Third Dimension', 14 Journal of International Dispute Settlement 425 (2023)
'International Law’s Invisible Frames: Social Cognition and Knowledge Production in International Legal Processes (A. Bianchi and M. Hirsch eds.)', 117 American Journal of International Law 548 (2023)
