Biography

Alain is a legal and political theorist interested in the practices of constitutional law, human rights law and international law. His research specifically aims to reconstruct and evaluate these practices from the perspective of normative theory. In particular, Alain has examined the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, UN treaty bodies and the International Criminal Court. His theoretical expertise spans human rights theory, constitutional theory, democratic theory and criminal law theory.

His current research project includes a monograph studying the nexus between the European Court of Human Rights and theories of populism. The research is funded by a two-year fellowship from the Norwegian Research Council (2021-23) and the monograph (2024) is under contract with Cambridge University Press' series International Courts and Tribunals.

Alain has published in leading international journals across the disciplines of constitutional law, international law, and legal and political theory. His research has appeared in International Journal of Constitutional Law (2019, 2022), Global Constitutionalism (2016, 2021, 2022), Ratio Juris (2019), Transnational Legal Theory (2023), Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (2019, 2021), Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (2016) and Criminal Law and Philosophy (2018), among others. Alain also acts as Associate Editor of Jus Cogens (Springer) and sits on the UKRI Review Panel.

Alain’s academic background is multi-disciplinary. He holds graduate degrees in Philosophy (MSc, London School of Economics), History (MA, Graduate Institute Geneva) and Law (LL.M., Toronto). He was awarded his PhD in law summa cum laude at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) under the supervision of Prof. Samantha Besson (now at Collège de France) with the support of a three-year scholarship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (2010-2013). His dissertation was awarded the Gottlob Prize for the best dissertation defended at the Faculty of Law and was published as a monograph with Routledge (The ECHR and Human Rights Theory). 

More recently, Alain held fellowships at the University of Michigan (International and Comparative Law Scholar, 2022), the Center of Excellence PluriCourts at the University of Oslo (Senior Research Fellow, 2021-23) and at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin (Re-Constitution Fellow, Center for Fundamental Rights, 2019-2020). In 2024, Alain will hold a Senior Research Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (Freiburg, Germany).

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2013 | 2012
Number of items: 24.

2024

Tripkovic, Bosko ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3048-2007 and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2024) Uncovering the nature of ECHR rights: An analytical and methodological framework. Human Rights Law Review, 24(1), ngad034. (doi: 10.1093/hrlr/ngad034)

2023

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 and Çalı, Başak (2023) Exhausting domestic remedies or exhausting the rule of law? Revisiting the normative basis of procedural subsidiarity in the European Convention on Human Rights. Transnational Legal Theory, 14(2), pp. 157-177. (doi: 10.1080/20414005.2023.2232601)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2023) International crimes through the lens of global constitutonalism. Global Constitutionalism, 12(1), pp. 59-79. (doi: 10.1017/S2045381722000120)

2022

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2022) To derogate or to restrict? The Covid-19 pandemic, proportionality and the justificatory gap in European human rights law. Jus Cogens, 4(3), pp. 285-301. (doi: 10.1007/s42439-022-00065-6) (PMCID:PMC9275544)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2022) Calibrating the response to populism at the European Court of Human Rights. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 20(3), pp. 976-1005. (doi: 10.1093/icon/moac056)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2022) Charles Beitz’ idea of human rights and the limits of law. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 25(1), pp. 87-106. (doi: 10.1080/13698230.2020.1859224)

2021

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 and Scherz, Antoinette (2021) Proportionality as procedure: strengthening the legitimate authority of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Global Constitutionalism, 10(3), pp. 524-546. (doi: 10.1017/S2045381721000071)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2021) A culture of justification or a culture of presumption? The turn to procedural review and the normative function of proportionality at the European Court of Human Rights. In: Schiedermair, Stephanie, Schwarz, Alexander and Steiger, Dominik (eds.) Theory and Practice of the ECHR. Nomos / Hart Publishing. (Accepted for Publication)

2020

Scherz, Antoinette and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2020) The UN Security Council, normative legitimacy and the challenge of specificity. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 23(3), pp. 37-391. (doi: 10.1080/13698230.2019.1565720)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2020) The right to justification and proportionality: A plea for determinacy and stability. In: Langvatn, Silje, Kumm, Matthias and Sadurski, Wojciech (eds.) Public Reason and Courts. Series: Studies on international courts and tribunals. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 256-280. ISBN 9781108487351 (doi: 10.1017/9781108766579.011)

2019

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) The common core between human rights law and international criminal law: A structural account. Ratio Juris, 32(3), pp. 278-300. (doi: 10.1111/raju.12254)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) Freedom of expression, the right to vote, and proportionality at the European Court of Human Rights: an internal critique. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 17(1), pp. 230-251. (doi: 10.1093/icon/moz002)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) Response to Allen Buchanan’s “The Complex Epistemology of Institutional Legitimacy Assessments, As Illustrated by the Case of the International Criminal Court”, manuscript, 2019. Temple International and Comparative Law Journal, 33(2), pp. 392-396.

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) Human rights: moral or political? Jurisprudence, 10(2), pp. 281-288. (doi: 10.1080/20403313.2019.1575617)[Book Review]

2018

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2018) Right, crime, and court: Toward a unifying political conception of international law. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 12(4), pp. 677-693. (doi: 10.1007/s11572-017-9450-9)

2017

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2017) The Heart of Human Rights, written by Allen Buchanan. Nordic Journal of International Law, 86(2), pp. 267-273. (doi: 10.1163/15718107-08602006)[Book Review]

2016

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) The ECHR and Human Rights Theory: Reconciling the Moral and the Political Conceptions. Series: Routledge Research in Human Rights Law. Routledge: London. ISBN 9781138641037

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) Searching for the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights: The neglected role of ‘Democratic Society’. Global Constitutionalism, 5(1), pp. 16-47. (doi: 10.1017/S2045381716000022)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) Refining the structure and revisiting the relevant jurisdiction of crimes against humanity. Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 29(1), pp. 245-265. (doi: 10.1017/cjlj.2016.9)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) When the European Court of Human Rights speaks, what should it say? Testing Brettschneider's value democracy at the supranational level. Philosophy and Public Issues, 6(1), pp. 159-193.

2015

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2015) Legal and moral pluralism: A rejoinder (in European Human Rights Law). Oslo Law Review, 2(3), pp. 176-199. (doi: 10.5617/oslaw2765)

2013

Bulak, Begüm and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2013) "Personal Autonomy” and “Democratic Society” at the European Court of Human Rights: Friends or foes? Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 2(1), pp. 230-254. (doi: 10.14324/111.2052-1871.009)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2013) The Judge at the European Court of Human Rights: ‘Moral Reading of Human Rights’ or Just ‘Reading of Moral Rights’? A Critique of Letsas. In: Besson, Samantha and Ziegler, Andreas (eds.) The Judge in European and International Law. Series: Fondements du Droit Europeen (4). LGDJ Lextenso Editions: Paris. ISBN 9783725568321

2012

Besson, Samantha and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2012) Human rights theory and human rights history - A tale of two odd bedfellows. Ancilla Iuris, 7, pp. 204-219.

This list was generated on Mon Jul 14 11:55:21 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews
Number of items: 24.

Articles

Tripkovic, Bosko ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3048-2007 and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2024) Uncovering the nature of ECHR rights: An analytical and methodological framework. Human Rights Law Review, 24(1), ngad034. (doi: 10.1093/hrlr/ngad034)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 and Çalı, Başak (2023) Exhausting domestic remedies or exhausting the rule of law? Revisiting the normative basis of procedural subsidiarity in the European Convention on Human Rights. Transnational Legal Theory, 14(2), pp. 157-177. (doi: 10.1080/20414005.2023.2232601)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2023) International crimes through the lens of global constitutonalism. Global Constitutionalism, 12(1), pp. 59-79. (doi: 10.1017/S2045381722000120)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2022) To derogate or to restrict? The Covid-19 pandemic, proportionality and the justificatory gap in European human rights law. Jus Cogens, 4(3), pp. 285-301. (doi: 10.1007/s42439-022-00065-6) (PMCID:PMC9275544)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2022) Calibrating the response to populism at the European Court of Human Rights. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 20(3), pp. 976-1005. (doi: 10.1093/icon/moac056)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2022) Charles Beitz’ idea of human rights and the limits of law. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 25(1), pp. 87-106. (doi: 10.1080/13698230.2020.1859224)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 and Scherz, Antoinette (2021) Proportionality as procedure: strengthening the legitimate authority of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Global Constitutionalism, 10(3), pp. 524-546. (doi: 10.1017/S2045381721000071)

Scherz, Antoinette and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2020) The UN Security Council, normative legitimacy and the challenge of specificity. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 23(3), pp. 37-391. (doi: 10.1080/13698230.2019.1565720)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) The common core between human rights law and international criminal law: A structural account. Ratio Juris, 32(3), pp. 278-300. (doi: 10.1111/raju.12254)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) Freedom of expression, the right to vote, and proportionality at the European Court of Human Rights: an internal critique. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 17(1), pp. 230-251. (doi: 10.1093/icon/moz002)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) Response to Allen Buchanan’s “The Complex Epistemology of Institutional Legitimacy Assessments, As Illustrated by the Case of the International Criminal Court”, manuscript, 2019. Temple International and Comparative Law Journal, 33(2), pp. 392-396.

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2018) Right, crime, and court: Toward a unifying political conception of international law. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 12(4), pp. 677-693. (doi: 10.1007/s11572-017-9450-9)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) Searching for the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights: The neglected role of ‘Democratic Society’. Global Constitutionalism, 5(1), pp. 16-47. (doi: 10.1017/S2045381716000022)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) Refining the structure and revisiting the relevant jurisdiction of crimes against humanity. Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 29(1), pp. 245-265. (doi: 10.1017/cjlj.2016.9)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) When the European Court of Human Rights speaks, what should it say? Testing Brettschneider's value democracy at the supranational level. Philosophy and Public Issues, 6(1), pp. 159-193.

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2015) Legal and moral pluralism: A rejoinder (in European Human Rights Law). Oslo Law Review, 2(3), pp. 176-199. (doi: 10.5617/oslaw2765)

Bulak, Begüm and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2013) "Personal Autonomy” and “Democratic Society” at the European Court of Human Rights: Friends or foes? Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 2(1), pp. 230-254. (doi: 10.14324/111.2052-1871.009)

Besson, Samantha and Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2012) Human rights theory and human rights history - A tale of two odd bedfellows. Ancilla Iuris, 7, pp. 204-219.

Books

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2016) The ECHR and Human Rights Theory: Reconciling the Moral and the Political Conceptions. Series: Routledge Research in Human Rights Law. Routledge: London. ISBN 9781138641037

Book Sections

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2021) A culture of justification or a culture of presumption? The turn to procedural review and the normative function of proportionality at the European Court of Human Rights. In: Schiedermair, Stephanie, Schwarz, Alexander and Steiger, Dominik (eds.) Theory and Practice of the ECHR. Nomos / Hart Publishing. (Accepted for Publication)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2020) The right to justification and proportionality: A plea for determinacy and stability. In: Langvatn, Silje, Kumm, Matthias and Sadurski, Wojciech (eds.) Public Reason and Courts. Series: Studies on international courts and tribunals. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 256-280. ISBN 9781108487351 (doi: 10.1017/9781108766579.011)

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2013) The Judge at the European Court of Human Rights: ‘Moral Reading of Human Rights’ or Just ‘Reading of Moral Rights’? A Critique of Letsas. In: Besson, Samantha and Ziegler, Andreas (eds.) The Judge in European and International Law. Series: Fondements du Droit Europeen (4). LGDJ Lextenso Editions: Paris. ISBN 9783725568321

Book Reviews

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2019) Human rights: moral or political? Jurisprudence, 10(2), pp. 281-288. (doi: 10.1080/20403313.2019.1575617)[Book Review]

Zysset, Alain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8377-4973 (2017) The Heart of Human Rights, written by Allen Buchanan. Nordic Journal of International Law, 86(2), pp. 267-273. (doi: 10.1163/15718107-08602006)[Book Review]

This list was generated on Mon Jul 14 11:55:21 2025 BST.

Grants

  • Senior Research Fellowship, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg im Breisgau (2024)
  • International and Comparative Law Research Fellowship, University of Michigan (2022-23)
  • Senior Research Fellowship, Norwegian Research Council, University of Oslo/Center of Excellence PluriCourts (2021-23) 
  • Re-Constitution Fellowship, Mercator Foundation/Hertie School of Governance (2019-20) 
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Norwegian Research Council, University of Oslo (2016-19) 
  • Max Weber Fellowship, European University Institute (2015-16) 
  • Postdoctoral Mobility Fellowship, Swiss National Research Foundation (2014-15) 
  • University of Toronto Graduate Fellowship (2013-14) 
  • UCLA School of Law, Dean’s Scholarship (2013-14) 
  • Doctoral Studentship, Swiss National Research Foundation (2010-13) 

Supervision

Alain currently supervises the following doctoral students:  

  • Ms. Sare Temel, ‘Rawls’ Theory of Justice and Migrants’ (2019-23) 
  • Ms. Dana Khan, ‘Human Rights and Climate Change Justice’ (2020-23) 
  • Mr. Jamie McGowan, ‘Rights and Juristocracy’ (2021-24) 
  • Mr Carlos Ramaglia Mota, 'The Constitutionalization of International Law: A Comparative Study between the IACtHR's Doctrine of Conventionality and the CJEU's Principle of Privacy'
  • Ms. Regina Surber, ‘The Combatant’s Licence to Kill’ (2020-23, University of Zurich)
  • McGowan, Jamie
    Ratio Juris and Juristocracy
  • Ramaglia Mota, Carlos Gabriel
    The Constitutionalization of International Law: a Comparative Study into the IACtHR’s Doctrine of Conventionality Control and the CJEU’s Principle of Primacy

Teaching

  • Constitutional Law 1
  • Comparative Human Rights Law: Law and Legitimacy 
  • Advanced Introduction to the ECHR
  • Research Methods (LLM by Research and PhD) 

Black and white portrait of a man in glasses