Core members
Lieutenant Colonel D. R. (OF-4) after his graduation at Faculty of Law of West-Bohemian University in 2007 worked as a member of Legal Division of the Statutory City of Pardubice. After the basic military training and advanced airborne training in 2009 D. R. joined Czech Armed Forces as a legal advisor of the commander of Airborne Battalion in Chrudim. In 2015 Lt. Colonel D. R. successfully completed initial tests and became a legal advisor of the commander of Czech Special Forces Directorate. During his military career Lt. Colonel D. R. graduated at ROEs and LOAC courses organized by Defence Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS). During the year 2012 Lt. Colonel D. R. was deployed in ISAF operation in Afghanistan as a LEGAD of the Czech Task Force commander.
Major T. H. (OF-3) after his graduation at Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in 2007 worked as a head of International Police Education and Training Unit and besides others was responsible for SCIBM project (South Caucasus Integrated Border Management). He was a member of expert group in two monitoring missions in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. After the basic military training and advanced airborne training in 2013 T. H. joined Czech Armed Forces as a legal advisor of the commander of Airborne Battalion in Chrudim. In 2017 major T. H. successfully completed initial tests and became a member of elite 601st special forces group. During his military career in 2015 major T. H. graduated in Brigade Legal Officers Course in Great Britain and in 2018 was sent as a part of deployment training to study in Defence Institute of International Legal Studies in the USA. During the year 2018 and 2019 captain T. H. was deployed in Resolute Support operation in Afghanistan as a LEGAD under the command of NATO Special Operations Command Afghanistan and in 2022 he was deployed to the European Union Training Mission in Mali as Chief Legal Officer of the Mission Command.
Captain D. K. (OF-2) gained his Master‘s degree in Law and Legal Science from Masaryk University in Brno. In 2012 he began his career at the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Justice. Here he gained experience in negotiations of international treaty text within the framework of Council of Europe and implementation review mechanisms of United Nation‘s treaties. After completing the boot camp in 2015 D. K. became the Legal Advisor to the Commander of the 44th Light Motorized Battalion in Jindřichův Hradec. With this unit he was also deployed as a chief liaison officer of the 9th Guard Detachment to the Bagram Airfield. In 2019, after absolving the selection procedure, he has been transferred to the Center for Special Forces Support in Olomouc.
1st Lieutenant M.L. (OF-1) graduated at the Faculty of Law of Palacky University in Olomouc in 2016. He started his professional career in a law firm. He joined the Czech Army in 2020. After completing basic training, he became a Legal Advisor to the Director of the Military Medical Agency in Hradec Králové, from where he also provided legal support to military medical facilities throughout the Czech Republic. In 2023, he completed a thorough selection procedure and has been assigned to a position of Legal Advisor at the Special Operations Forces Support Centre in Olomouc.
First Lieutenant D. B. (OF-1)
has been serving in the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic since 2000. A graduate of a military secondary school, he began his career in reconnaissance, completed international training courses, and participated in missions. He later taught at the Military Academy in Vyškov and earned a Master’s degree in Law from Pan-European University, specializing in International and European Union Law.
Since 2020, he has been serving as a Legal Advisor (LEGAD) at the 102nd Reconnaissance Battalion in Prostějov.
Major T. S. started his professional military career after his graduation from military high school in 1998. From 2008 he became a member of Legal Service of the Army of Czech Republic since he has been posted as a legal advisor to the Commander of Light Motorized Battalion. Later on he served as a legal advisor to the Commander of Land Forces and currently is posted as a legal advisor to the Commander of Cyber Defense and Info-Operations Forces. In 2013 he graduated from Janko Jesensky Faculty of Law at Danubius University. During his military career as a member of Legal Service he successfully finished a number of international humanitarian law courses organized for example by Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) or Czech Red Cross. In 2010 he served in NATO peace-keeping operation Joint Enterprise (KFOR) in Kosovo.
Visiting fellows
External experts
JUDr. Věra Honusková, Ph.D.
Dr. Honusková is a senior lecturer in international law at the Charles University, Faculty of Law. In her research and teaching, Dr. Honusková focuses on refugee, migration and human rights law. At the Charles University, dr. Honusková developed a Migration teaching module, which enables students to gain knowledge and skills in the field of international and national refugee and migration law. Later on she founded and is the head of the Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (CeMiReLa). She regularly participates in conferences in the Czech Republic and abroad and has published extensively in these fields. She is one of the creators (for the civilian part) of the design of the Camp Peira exercise.
Prof. Hennie Strydom
Hennie Strydom is professor-emeritus in public law, with public international law and administrative law as teaching obligations. He specialises in public international law, environmental law and humanitarian law. Prof Strydom has published extensively in these fields of law. He served as the president of the International Law Association, as well as the President of the South African Branch of the International Law Association. He lectured on several occasions at the Palacký University on a variety of international law questions.
Assoc. Prof. Martha M. Bradley
Martha M Bradley is associate professor at the Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg. Prof Bradley is particularly proud to be an External Expert at CIHOL.
Dr Bradley has held research positions at two academic institutions, locally and abroad. After completing her doctorate she joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Johannesburg (1 March 2018) when she was appointed as a post-doctoral researcher to the South African Research Chair for International Law until 30 June 2019. She was also employed as a post-doctoral researcher at the Palacký University in Olomouc, Faculty of Law, Department of International and European Law, Czech Republic between September 2018 and March 2019.
Prof Bradley holds LLB, LLM (International Air, Space and Telecommunication Law) and LLD degrees from the University of Pretoria. The title of her doctoral thesis is: An analysis of the notions of “organised armed groups” and “intensity” in the law of non-international armed conflict. Also, she has an LLM degree in Shipping Law from the University of Cape Town. During May 2019 Prof Bradley completed the 40th Advanced Course on International Humanitarian Law, the 50th Course for Directors of Courses and Trainers on IHL and the Peace Support Operations Course at the International Institute for International Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy. She holds certificates for attending the Summer School in Public International Law held by The Hague Academy of International Law, The Hague, The Netherlands in 2017 as well as the 2015 MACIL Summer School on Public International Law held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Prof Bradley’s general areas of specialization lie in public international law and international humanitarian law. After completing her doctorate in 2018, Dr Bradley increasingly focused her research on conflict classification and the law of non-international armed conflict. Her interests lie in the area of the practice of organised armed groups in Africa and in analysing the complexity that challenges classification as a result of the fragmentation of organised armed groups, low intensity armed conflict, as well as cross-border armed conflicts. She has published on the doctrine of command responsibility.
Dr. Aniel De Beer
Dr. Aniel de Beer is a research associate to the South African Research Chair in International Law at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is specifically interested in the role of international law in the fight against terrorism. Her book, Peremptory Norms of General International Law (jus cogens) and the Prohibition of Terrorism, explores whether the prohibition of terrorism has obtained jus cogens status under international law. It further considers the interaction between the prohibition of terrorism (and actions taken to fight terrorism) and other norms of international law, such as the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial and the prohibition of the interstate use of force. Dr de Beer has published various articles on international terrorism, the use of force and command responsibility under international law.
JUDr. Kristýna Urbanová, Ph.D.
Kristýna has been focusing on International Criminal Law and she studied this area of law in Charles University in Prague (Ph.D.) and University of Cambridge (LL.M.). Since 2014 she has been also teaching Public International Law course in Charles University and participated as lecturer in courses of International Criminal Law and International Economic Law. In 2018 she was a visiting professional in the International Criminal Court serving as an assistant to Judge Christine Van den Wyngaert (Appeals Chamber). Kristýna is also active in practice as an advocate (admitted to the Czech Bar association). In particular, she has practical experience with International Investment Arbitration and regulatory litigation.
Dr. Agata Kleczkowska
PhD in public international law, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Legal expert of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. In 2018 she defended her PhD thesis titled “Use of Force by States under Customary International Law”. Her research interests include, but are not limited to, the use of force, armed non-state actors, hybrid threats, recognition and statehood. In 2018 she continued her research on armed non-state actors with the fellowship from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. She is also a Rapporteur at the Oxford International Organizations.
Assoc. Prof. Tamás Hoffmann
Prof Tamás Hoffmann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Legal Studies and an Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest. He researches different fields of general international law mainly focusing on international humanitarian law, international criminal law and customary international law. Some of his publications can be accessed here
Doctoral students
JUDr. František Tóth
Doctoral project: Legal Status of Private Military and Security Companies under International Humanitarian Law
Description: František focuses especially on the legal status of private military and security companies under international humanitarian law. His doctoral research project also deals with various issues connected to their corporate nature. He does not want to analyze them only through the individual status of their employees. Rather, he focuses on PMSCs as collective entities, which actively participate in armed conflict as well as post-conflict situations.
Education and professional experience: František graduated from Pan – European University, Faculty of Law in Bratislava, Slovakia (2018). He completed his master’s degree with a thesis on International Law Aspects of Combating Terrorism. In 2021, he defended his rigorosum thesis on Foreign Terrorist Fighters in International Law at the Faculty of Law, Palacký University in Olomouc, thereby earning the title Doctor Iuris (JUDr). Currently, he is a PhD. Candidate with specialization in International and European Law at the same Faculty.
His first real-life experience with international law was in 2018 when he did an internship at the Centre for International Law at the Institute of International Relations, Prague. Subsequently (in 2020) he completed an internship at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Professionally, since 2020 he works as a Legal Advisor at the International Law Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic. As a Legal Advisor, he conducted various lectures for members of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic on topics related to international law. Besides, he had the opportunity to attend various courses and trainings in public international law. These include courses on international humanitarian law, organized by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Sanremo, Italy.
Research fields and expertise: Frantisek’s research interests include international humanitarian law, international law on the use of force, international criminal law and issues connected to UN peacekeeping. He publishes regularly professional articles from this thematic area and actively participates in conferences. He has also conducted a short research stay at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany.
Frantisek’s last contributions comprise:
TÓTH, František. Command Responsibility for Crimes Committed by Private Military and Security Companies, Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law, 2022, Vol. 13, p. 207 – 222
TÓTH, František. Private Military and Security Companies and International Responsibility: Examining the Attributability of PMCS’s Conduct to State and International Organizations during United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, Slovak Yearbook of International Law, 2022, Vol. XI.
TÓTH, František. United Nations Use of Private Military and Security Companies In the Context of Peacekeeping Operations, Slovak Yearbook of International Law, 2021, Vol. X, p. 45 - 66
Mgr. Mária Fančovičová
Doctoral project: Autonomous Weapons Systems in the Context of Public International Law
Description: The project is dealing with the question of autonomous weapons systems (“AWS“) from the perspective of public international law, more specifically international humanitarian law. Mária is focusing on present law regulating AWS and on future development of legal regulation of AWS. Mária also deliberates ethical and security questions of AWS. Her research is not focused only on the question of AWS, but also on artificial intelligence from the legal point of view.
Mgr. Jakub Spáčil
Doctoral project: Unilateral Remedies to Cyber Operations: Self-defense, Countermeasures, Plea of Necessity and Retorsion
Description: Jakub focuses mainly on the application of international law in cyberspace. His doctoral research deals with the right of self-defense, countermeasures, the plea of necessity and retorsion in the context of cyber operations. However, he is also interested in the regulation of the use of force in general and in international criminal law.
Graduated Doctoral Students
Mgr. Ivan Ryška, PhD.
Doctoral project: Protection of Cultural Heritage under International Criminal Law
Description: Ivan is dealing with issues related to protection of cultural heritage under International law. He examines protection both during peace time and armed conflict which is linked to several branches of Public International Law, namely International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law. He also focuses on associations amid crimes under International law and destruction of cultural heritage.
Ivan defended his thesis successfully in summer 2023.
Mgr. Michala Chadimová, LL.M., PhD.
Doctoral project: Superior responsibility and its application to the crime of genocide
Description: Michala is working on the applicability of superior responsibility to the crime of genocide. She examines the potential clash between a responsibility for omission, arguably including a notion of negligence, and a crime distinct by special ‚genocidal‘ intent.
Michala graduated from the Amsterdam University (LL.M., International Public and European Law). She did her internship at the ICC and participated in the prosecution of Bosco Ntaganda for war crimes and crimes against humanity. She also served at the Office of the Co-Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. She is a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Projects: International Criminal Responsibility for Special Intent Crimes (Chadimova), IGA (2 years project)
Tuomas Heikinnen, M.A., PhD.
Doctoral project: Unified Standard of IHL Application in Multinational Military Operations
Description: The project focuses on the different obligations of the entities (troop contributing States and international organizations) involved in multinational military operations. The study involved questions regarding the responsibility of different entities in multinational military operations, analysis regarding which entity’s standard of obligations is applicable to the military operation and how the different standards of IHL can cause issues regarding interoperability of the military operation.
Tuomas defended his thesis successfully in May 2019.