About
Andrea is a Lecturer in Human Rights Law at the University of Southampton and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She teaches international human rights law, international criminal law, and the law of the European Union. Her research focuses on demographic engineering under international law, and her broader interests span forced displacement, forcible and population transfer, settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide.
In 2024, Andrea received a two-year British Academy–Leverhulme Small Grant for the project on Demographic Engineering and Apartheid in Western Sahara (with Victor Kattan, Principal Investigator, University of Nottingham), which combines doctrinal analysis with archival research in London and Madrid and fieldwork in the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria.
Andrea is also interested in climate-related involuntary mobility and immobility and their treatment under international human rights law. She is the founder and co-convenor of the ICON-S Interest Group on Migration and Climate Change, an international academic network on climate mobilities and the law, and collaborates with civil society organisations working on climate mobilities. She is a Research Affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) and member of its Working Group on Climate Change, Disasters and Displacement and Working Group on Courts and Refugee Protection.
Andrea’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the American Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, the German Yearbook of International Law, the Netherlands International Law Review, and the Journal of International Dispute Settlement, among others. She is the winner of the 2024 Georg Schwarzenberger Prize in International Law.
Andrea regularly collaborates with human rights NGOs and is part of Amnesty International Southampton.
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Research
Current research
Andrea’s principal research concerns the legal and normative implications of demographic engineering under international law. She is completing a monograph, Demographic Engineering and International Law, which offers the first sustained legal study of the phenomenon as a distinct object of international legal analysis, examining how it operates across processes of sovereignty affirmation, state creation, territorial and border modification, the exercise of self-determination, and the commission of atrocities and international crimes, including genocide and apartheid. Andrea combines doctrinal analysis with empirical and archival research, and her theoretical approach draws on public demography, critical human geography, settler-colonial studies, border abolitionism, and non-dominant approaches to international law and human rights.
Andrea's research on demographic engineering in Western Sahara is supported by a British Academy–Leverhulme Small Grant for the project Demographic Engineering and Apartheid in Western Sahara (2024–2026), which she holds with Dr Victor Kattan (University of Nottingham) as Principal Investigator, and three research assistants. The project examines how Morocco has used settlements and development projects to reshape the demographic composition of the territory, and asks whether these practices, taken together, amount to a form of apartheid and a denial of the Saharawi people's right to self-determination. It combines doctrinal analysis with archival research in London and Madrid and fieldwork in the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria.
Andrea is also interested in climate-related displacement and climate mobilities and their treatment under international human rights law. She founded and co-convenes the ICON-S Interest Group on Migration and Climate Change, an international academic network on climate mobilities, and collaborates with civil-society organisations as a knowledge specialist such as the Climate Mobility Community Action Network (CMCAN) and the Beyond Climate Collaborative (BCC). In this area, Andrea is particularly interested in concepts of "justice" and responsibility sharing.
Andrea is a member of the Southampton's Centre for International Law and Globalisation (CILG).
PhD supervision
Andrea welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD applicants wishing to work with her at Southampton Law School in her areas of interest, including: demographic engineering; forcible and population transfer; settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide under public international law; self-determination and statehood; climate-related mobilities; and case studies of demographic engineering in specific territories. Applicants are welcome to contact her by email with a short outline of their proposed research.
Publications
Articles
AM Pelliconi, 'The legacy of the ICJ’s Western Sahara opinion 50 years after its adoption' (2026) 17(3) Journal of International Dispute Settlement, pp. 1-17
A Zammit-Borda, S Mandelbaum & AM Pelliconi, 'The ILC Study on Teachings as Subsidiary Means: Arguments for a Pluralist Reading' (2026) 120(2) American Journal of International Law, pp. 322-342
V Kattan & AM Pelliconi, 'The Security Council Resolutions on Western Sahara and Gaza: Is Decolonisation in Danger?’ (2025) E-International Relations
AM Pelliconi, 'La Decisione Fronte Polisario II della Corte di Giustizia dell’Unione Europea e il Diritto all’Autodeterminazione del Popolo Sahrawi' (2025) 1 La Comunità Internazionale, pp. 109-137
AM Pelliconi, ‘The Demographic Battle for Palestine in the Settler-Colonial Project and the Promise and Peril of International Law. A Review of The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity by Ardi Imseis' (2025) 16(1) Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies
AM Pelliconi, ‘Unexceptional Exceptionalism: The Use of Force by Great Powers and International Instability’ (2024) E-International Relations shortlisted as a finalist in the 2024 E-International Relations Article Award, sponsored by Edinburgh University Press, Polity, Sage, Bloomsbury and Routledge
AM Pelliconi, ‘Self-Defence As Remedial Self-Determination: Continuity in Russian Narratives to Justify Imperialism and the Use of Force’ (2024) Netherlands International Law Review
AM Pelliconi, ‘Russia’s Use of Demographic Engineering to Affirm Sovereignty Over Adjacent Territories’ (2023) 66(1) German Yearbook of International Law, pp. 177–203
AM Pelliconi, ‘Yesterday’s heroes, today’s criminals: The work of the KSC and the controversial role of criminalisation in transitional justice’ (2023) 4 OIDU – Observatory on International Criminal Tribunals, pp. 960-968
AM Pelliconi, ‘Unexpected Maritime Crossroads. The ‘duty to rescue’ and the human rights content of the Law of the Sea’ (2021) 6 International Review of Human Rights Law, pp. 1-15
AM Pelliconi, ‘Migrants at Sea and the implications of the “duty to rescue”: human rights perspectives in the light of the Italian case-law’ (2020) 3 Il Diritto Marittimo - Il Mulino, pp. 622-638
AM Pelliconi & M Goldoni, ‘The banality of ports closed by Decree. Observations on profiles of legitimacy of the Inter-ministerial Decree 150/2020’ [ITA] (2020) 2 Diritto, Immigrazione e Cittadinanza, pp. 218-231
AM Pelliconi, ‘From Internal to Extra-Territorial Administrative Detention of Migrants’ (2019) Federalismi - Human Rights Focus, pp. 1-28
AM Pelliconi, 'Comment to the sentence of the European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber, G.I.E.M. S.R.L. and others v. Italy (Rec. NN. 1828/06, 34163/07 E 19029/11)’ [ITA] (2018) Giustizia - Rivista della Scuola Forense V. E. Orlando
AM Pelliconi, ‘Child pornography in the private sphere and the crime of virtual pedopornography. Critical considerations in the light of Judgement No. 22265/2017 of the Italian Court of Cassation’ [ITA] (2018) Giustizia - Rivista della Scuola Forense V. E. Orlando
Book Chapters
AM Pelliconi, J Odermatt, 'Human Rights Accountability in Western Sahara: Responsibility Without Recognition' in K Istrefi, L Pasquet, L Roorda, C Ryngaert and BD Çabuk (eds), Human Rights Accountability of Non-Universally Recognised States and State-Like Entities (Edward Elgar 2026)
AM Pelliconi, 'From Settlement to Genocide: The State-Sponsored Demographic Engineering of Palestine and the Challenge of Enforcement in the Aftermath of the 2024 ICJ's Advisory Opinion on Israel's Occupation' in Rethinking International Law After Gaza (Bogazici 2026) pp 179-188
AM Pelliconi, 'Spatial and demographic dimensions of sovereignty in Western Sahara: the authority-sponsored shaping of the ‘self’ in self-determination' in S Allen, JF Diogo, A Mensi and F Pereira Coutinho (eds), Western Sahara in the International Legal Order. 50 Years after the ICJ Advisory Opinion (Brill 2025)
Short Publications & Blogs
A Zammit Borda, S Mandelbaum, AM Pelliconi, 'From Teachings as Repositories to Teachings as Gateways: Revisiting the Use of Teachings Under Article 38(1)(d) of the ICJ Statute in Germany v. Italy' (2026) Opinio Juris
AM Pelliconi et al, 'Leave to Remain for “Climate Refugees”: UK Human Rights Appeal Granted on Climate Change Grounds' (2026) Refugee Law Initiative
AM Pelliconi et al, 'A Right to Remain for "Climate Refugees": Court Grants First UK Human Rights Appeal on Climate Change Grounds' (2026) CMCAN
AM Pelliconi et al (eds), 'Symposium: Prosecuting Heads of State for International Crimes' (2026) Opinio Juris
AM Pelliconi, ‘Trump’s takeover of Venezuela and the long-standing hypocrisy of international law’ (2026) The Fearless Scholar
AM Pelliconi, 'Pillaging Palestine: Policy, Property, and Plunder in the Creation of the State of Israel' (2025) Allegra Laboratory
AM Pelliconi & S von Massow, 'How Not to Trade with Occupying Powers: Western Sahara and the Amendment to the EU-Moroccan Association Agreements' (2025) EJIL:Talk!
AM Pelliconi & V Kattan, 'Morocco using economic clout to strengthen grip on disputed Western Sahara territory' (2025) The Conversation
AM Pelliconi, 'Development as Domination: Settler Tourism in Western Sahara and the Commodification of Occupied Territories in Trumpist International Law' (2025) Opinio Juris
AM Pelliconi & R Bryce, 'Primer: Climate Mobility in the Inter-American Court’s Landmark Opinion on Climate Change' (2025) CMCAN
AM Pelliconi, S Arapiles & P Purswani (eds), ‘Special Issue on Climate-induced (im)mobilities’ (2025) Blog of the Socio-Legal Studies Association
AM Pelliconi & J Odermatt, ‘Benefit v Consent: CJEU’s Front Polisario II Judgment and the Law of Self-Determination’ (2024) Center for International Law Dialogues, National University of Singapore
AM Pelliconi & V Kattan, ‘UK Home Office grants asylum to a Palestinian citizen of Israel amid fears of persecutions in the context of an institutionalised apartheid regime’ (2024) Refugee Law Initiative
AM Pelliconi, ‘Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Demographic Changes, and Forcible Transfer as a Violation of Self-Determination’ (2024) Blog Droit International Pénal
AM Pelliconi, ‘The Italian Constitutional Court’s new decision on state immunity and the ICJ Germany vs Italy No.2’ (2023) Ejil:Talk!
AM Pelliconi, ‘The human crisis in the climate crisis: On the legal limbo of climate-related displacement’ (2023) International Law Blog
AM Pelliconi & F Sironi De Gregorio, ‘New universal jurisdiction case filed in Germany for crimes committed in Myanmar before and after the coup: On complementarity, effectiveness, and new hopes for old crimes’ (2023) Ejil:Talk!
AM Pelliconi, ‘Self-Determination as Faux Remedial Secession in Russia’s Annexation Policies: When the Devil Wears Justice’ (2023) Völkerrechtsblog
AM Pelliconi, ‘The Trilateral Agreement between Turkey, Finland and Sweden and the Silence of Human Rights: The Need to Apply the MoU in Light of Human Rights and Refugee Law Protections’ (2022) Ejil:Talk!
AM Pelliconi, ‘Denial of Right of Return and Demographic Engineering as Potential Crimes Against Humanity’ (2021) International Law Blog
AM Pelliconi, ‘Covid-19 and migrant workers – new problems in old clothes’ (2021) IMISCOE Blog
AM Pelliconi, ‘Covid-19: Italy is not a “place of safety” anymore. Is the decision to close Italian ports compliant with human rights obligations?’ (2020) Ejil:Talk!
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Teaching
- International Human Rights Law
- Globalisation and the Individual
- Public Law
- The Law of the European Union
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Biography
Andrea studied for a combined Bachelor and Master of Law with a major in Public International Law at Bocconi University, Milan. During her studies she attended the University of Geneva's Summer School in International Humanitarian Law with the 2015 Excellence Scholarship, and she interned at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and at the law firm Azmi & Associates in Malaysia.
She went on to complete an Advanced Master in the International Protection of Human Rights "Maria Rita Saulle" in the Department of International Relations at Sapienza University, Rome, achieving the highest overall result in her cohort. Her dissertation was selected for publication in Federalismi, a leading Italian journal of public law.
She then trained and qualified as a lawyer at the Rome Bar, practising as a criminal, immigration, and asylum lawyer in Rome. Moving into international human rights work, she worked as a Research Fellow with the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and then as a Researcher with the Human Rights Defenders & Civic Freedoms team of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (now Business and Human Rights Centre – BHRC).
In 2019, Andrea began her fully-funded PhD in International Law at The City Law School, University of London. Alongside her doctoral research, she was a Teaching and Research Assistant at City and worked as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, the University of the West of England (UWE), and then then London School of Economics (LSE). She was awarded a doctoral writing-up grant from the British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG), and in 2023 held an ESIL Young Investigator Training Programme visiting fellowship at the University of Bologna and a guest fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law in Luxembourg. She completed her PhD in 2024 and was awarded the Georg Schwarzenberger Prize in International Law by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) for her dissertation.
From 2023 to 2024, Andrea was a Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham. She joined the University of Southampton as a Lecturer in Human Rights Law in September 2024.
Between 2023 and 2025, she was co-lead of the Programmes Committee of the Young International Criminal Lawyers Association (AYICL). Since 2026 she has been Knowledge Specialist in Law and Human Rights for the Beyond Climate Collaborative (BCC), having previously served as Research Manager of the Climate Mobility Community Action Network (CMCAN). She is the founder and co-convenor of the ICON-S Interest Group on Migration and Climate Change.
Andrea is a qualified lawyer (non-practising) at the Rome Bar, Italy.
Prizes
- Georg Schwarzenberger Prize in International Law (2024)
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