Bérénice Boutin
Bérénice is a Researcher at the TMC Asser Institute, working on various projects related to counter-terrorism, modern warfare, and international crimes. Her research interests include general public international law, international responsibility, international human rights, and international humanitarian law.
Bérénice was part of the SHARES Project from 2010 to 2015 as a PhD candidate. She defended her thesis, entitled The Role of Control in Allocating International Responsibility in Collaborative Military Operations, in October 2015. Her dissertation addresses the responsibility of States and international organizations for violations of international law committed during collaborative military operations. More specifically, it analyses how forms and degrees of military control can translate into forms and degrees of responsibility. In order to provide answers to the question of allocation, the study engages in a reinterpretation of existing rules through the lens of the concept of causal control. In essence, the thesis argues that a State or international organization can be held responsible when its direct or indirect exercise of, or failure to exercise, a form of control qualifies as a cause of a given wrongful conduct. In this argument, different forms and degrees of control can be causally linked to the occurrence of different types of harmful acts, and responsibility can be allocated on that basis.
Bérénice holds a PhD in Public International Law from the University of Amsterdam (2015), an LLM in Public International Law from the University of Amsterdam (2010), and a Research Master in Private International Law and International Commercial Law from the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (2008).
Blogposts by Bérénice Boutin
- Dutch Court holds the Netherlands responsible for 300 Srebrenica deaths, and sets limits to future claims
- Responsibility of the UK for detentions in Afghanistan: questions of attribution of conduct
- Responsibility of the Netherlands for the conduct of Dutchbat: overview of the Supreme Court decision
- Responsibility for peace, and responsibility in war: on the military operation in Mali
- A brief overview of the SHARES Concept Paper - Introductory session of the Conference on Foundations of Shared Responsibility in International Law
- What Responsibility for States Participating to a Lesser Extent to the NATO Operation in Libya?
- An “unlikely scenario” that occurred in Ivory Coast… And a case for shared responsibility between the UN and France
- The first days of the implementation of Resolution 1973: an unclear coalition and unclear responsibilities
- Apologies are not enough: on the practical importance of implementing international responsibility
Publications by Bérénice Boutin
- Responsibility of the Netherlands for the Acts of Dutchbat in Nuhanović and Mustafić: The Continuous Quest for a Tangible Meaning for ‘Effective Control’ in the Context of Peacekeeping
- Expert Seminar Report – Responsibility in Multinational Military Operations: a Review of Recent Practice