The Hague Academy of International Law - Winter courses 2025

Winter Courses

• Public and Private International Law
• Next session: 6 - 24 January 2025
• Registration for the 2025 Winter Courses will be open from 1st May to 1st October 2024 for full fee applicants, and from 1st May to 31st July 2024 for scholarship applicants
• Lectures by renowned academics and practitioners
• Directed Studies sessions and Diploma Exam for advanced students

The Winter Courses are designed for students and practitioners who have a prior grounding in public or private international law. The courses are given in English or French and are simultaneously translated into the other language.

Each Winter Courses session consists of a General Course, which lasts the full three weeks, Special Courses of one week each (broaching six different topics in total), and afternoon seminars and guest lectures. All courses and lectures are given by renowned academics, practitioners and diplomats from various institutions around the world.

Since opening its doors in 1923, thousands of students from over 100 different nationalities have been able to attend the Academy’s yearly Summer Courses. Since 2019 they can also attend its Winter Courses. Many alumni, having thus had the opportunity to meet “great names” in the field of international law, have subsequently gone on to become themselves well-known academics, legal practitioners or diplomats, among other occupations.

After having been dispensed, the courses are subsequently published in the Collected Courses book series, of which there are currently over 410 volumes, ranking among the most important encyclopedic publications on public and private international law.

During the Courses

The Winter Courses focus on international law (both public and private) and take place over a period of 3 weeks. They follow the traditional structure of the Summer Courses and are comprised of a General Course and a series of Special Courses. The General Course lasts for the entire three weeks (15 hours), while each Special Course takes place over the course of one week (five hours). Every morning, attendees follow two hours of Special Courses and one hour of the General Course.

• General Courses (daily – morning – compulsory): These courses highlight developments within the field of international law, and provide attendees with the opportunity to take a step backwards and, through an overall view and a comprehensive reflection, grasp the main lines of the discipline around which legal thinking is structured.
• Special Courses (daily – morning – compulsory): These courses, consisting of five hours in total spread out over one week, deal with a particular question or topic, and are given by professors who have studied the subject extensively and are specialists in the field.
• Seminars (three per week – afternoon – optional): All professors give seminars related to the subject of their course. During these interactive meetings, attendees are given the opportunity to ask questions, to obtain additional information on the course, and to participate in discussions.
• Directed Studies sessions (two per week – afternoon – admission upon selection): The Directed Studies sessions are designed for advanced attendees, who wish to prepare themselves for the Diploma Exam of the Academy, or who are simply interested in participating in seminars delving more deeply into questions of public or private international law without sitting for the Exam.
• Doctoral networking meetings (optional): Doctoral students from different countries who are working on identical or related topics, are given the opportunity to regularly meet throughout the session, under the guidance of a lecturer or practitioner who is specifically assigned for this purpose. These doctoral networking meetings allow students to share their views, insights and different approaches with respect to issues relating to their research topics, leading to exchanges that can of course be continued after their stay at the Academy.

At the end of the session, the participants who regularly attended the courses receive a Certificate of Attendance.