Leiden University: New Owada chair in Leiden and Tokyo
The universities of Tokyo and Leiden are installing a rotating chair named after Professor Hisashi Owada. The Owada chair will focus on interaction between international law and international relations through interdisciplinary approaches. Dominique Moïsi, a professor at King’s College in London, will hold this chair from autumn this year.
Hisashi Owada is an expert in international law. He was a judge and president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and Professor of Relations between Europe and Japan at Leiden University. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo.
Very honoured
Hester Bijl, rector magnificus of Leiden University said the following about the new chair: ‘Given his great services to international relations and international law, and his previous links to our university and contribution as a researcher, we are very honoured that Professor Owada wishes to have his name associated with this chair.’
Shift in power relations
The Owada chair will focus on interaction between international law and international relations through interdisciplinary approaches. The world is currently undergoing a significant process of transformation, and we are also facing a pandemic that is putting pressure on power relations, not only within and among states, but also on a global scale. We are seeing significant global shifts in these power relations. What does this mean for our international order?
The holder of the Owada chair will stimulate discussion and debate on these global issues, which are closely interwoven with the practice of international relations in a geopolitical perspective and also with international law. The chair will be in place for six years, and will be held by a leading scholar in this field, alternating between Leiden University and Tokyo.
Dominique Moïsi
Dominique Moïsi will be the first holder of the new Owada chair at Leiden University
Dominique Moïsi
The first scholar to hold this new chair is Dominique Moïsi. Moïsi studied at Sciences Po Paris and Harvard University, and obtained his PhD at the Sorbonne. He founded and led the Institut Français des Relations Internationales. He is currently a professor at King’s College in London, and has taught at various leading universities in Europe. Since 2016 Moïsi has also been an adviser for the Institut Montaigne, a Paris thinktank.
Moïsi will hold the chair in the 2021-2022 academic year, at Leiden University. He will give his inaugural lecture on 14 October 2021 at Leiden University’s Campus the Hague. For each new inauguration a seminar will be organised for faculty members, advanced students and PhD candidates from Leiden and Tokyo.
Owada chair
In Leiden, this rotating chair is located at the Faculties of Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Governance and Global Affairs, and Law. Its sphere of activity will be directed by Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Professor of International Studies and Global History. The new Owada chair and associated activities are funded in part by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) and several other parties.