Rohit Gupta
Rohit Gupta is an India-qualified lawyer and External PhD Candidate under Prof. Claus Kreß' supervision at the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. He was awarded the B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) (Gold Medal) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India in 2023 and the LL.M. (International Law) (summa cum laude) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland in 2024. He was also awarded the Doctoral Scholarship for Gifted Students of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and Doctoral Scholarship from Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, and is currently funded by the latter.
Mr. Gupta is researching on the prosecution of war crimes against the natural environment in national criminal jurisdictions (specifically Germany, Ukraine, and Colombia). During the summer semester of 2026, he conducted a research stay at Essex Law School, University of Essex, under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Gillett. In addition to international criminal law, his research interests concern international humanitarian law, international environmental law, outer space law, and general international law.
Inter alia, Mr. Gupta is a Fellow at the Centre for International Law Research and Policy, Editorial Assistant at the Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, Assistant Co-ordinator of Lexsitus (an open access, multilingual e-learning platform for international criminal law), Rapporteur at the Oxford Reports on International Criminal Law, and Foreign Legal Expert on Environmental Crimes at Truth Hounds (a Ukraine-based NGO). He is also a member of the Cologne Center for Advanced Studies in International History and Law.
Current Research Project
Doctoral thesis titled "How to Prosecute War Crimes against the ‘Natural Environment’ in National Criminal Jurisdiction"
Publications
Journal Publications
Rohit Gupta, The Law of State Continuity, the Prohibition Against Derecognition, and the Right to Digital Sovereignty: A Tale of Tuvalu, German Law Journal (forthcoming)
Rohit Gupta, The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and Long Path Towards Normalization, PBS No. 198, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (2026)
Gunnar M. Ekeløve-Slydal and Rohit Gupta, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan: International Crimes without Justice, PBS No. 195, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (2025)
Forgotten Blind Spots of Jus in Bello: The 1972 World Heritage Convention and the Natural Environment As ‘Cultural Heritage’, Journal of International Humanitarian Law Studies (2025)
Sandeepa Bhat B. and Rohit Gupta, Sui Generis Interpretation of Key Elements of Space Demilitarization for Ensuring Peaceful Uses, Indonesian Journal of International and Comparative Law, Vol. X(1) (2023)
Ashika Jain and Rohit Gupta, Precluding the Wrongfulness of Derogations of International Human Rights Instruments, Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, Vol. 24(1) (2023)
Aanchal Kabra and Rohit Gupta, Carving an Indian Mosaic for Image-Based Sexual Abuse, National Law School of India Review, Vol. 34(1) (2022)
Aanchal Kabra and Rohit Gupta, ‘De-X-ing’ the XXX: The Constitutional Validity of India’s Porn Ban, NLUD Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 4 (2022)
Rohit Gupta, Democratic Forces in Myanmar at the Mercy of International Justice, PBS No. 136, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (2022)
Rohit Gupta, Voicing and Addressing Colonial Grievances under International Law, PBS No. 134, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (2022)
Rohit Gupta, Some Remarks on Integrity in International Justice, PBS No. 133, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (2022)
Other Publications
Rohit Gupta et al., Legal Commentary on Articles 10 & 11 of the 1996 African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, Truth Hounds (forthcoming)
Rohit Gupta, Invisible Shadows in Inter-State Negotiations: Testing Sinclair’s Hypothesis on the Need for Automatically Available Procedures, International Law Blog (2025)
Rohit Gupta et al., Submission to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the Policy Initiative to Advance Accountability for Environmental Crimes, Truth Hounds (2025)
Rohit Gupta, Who Let the Bots Out? Attributing State Responsibility over Violations by Artificial Intelligence Systems, Verfassungsblog (2024)
Rohit Gupta, Inter-State Alliances as Participants in International Law-Making, Opinio Juris (2024)
Rohit Gupta, Are Astronauts Employees Too? In Search for a Labour Law for Outer Space, Travaux (2022)
Rohit Gupta and Shravya Devaraj, Framing Cookie Policy: A Data Protection Perspective, Indian Journal of Law and Technology Blog (2022)
Rohit Gupta and Shravya Devaraj, Framing Privacy Policies: A Competition Law Perspective, Richmond Journal of Law & Technology Blog (2022)
Rohit Gupta, Does the Establishment of Specialized Space Military Corps Ipso Facto Violate International Law?, Opinio Juris (2022)
Insha Rahman and Rohit Gupta, Hungarian Anti-LGBTQ+ Campaign: Restricting Portrayals of Homosexuality to Minors, Jurist (2021)
Akshay Luhadia and Rohit Gupta, The Spanish-Moroccan Migrant Crisis: Counting the Collateral, Oxford Human Rights Hub (2021)
Atul Alexander and Rohit Gupta, Picking at the Nail in the Coffin: Examining the Al-Bashir Case from the Lens of the Geneva Conventions, Cambridge International Law Journal Blog (2021)
Rohit Gupta, Notes from a Foreign Field: The Impact of Schrems-II, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy Blog (2020)
Case Headnotes
Rohit Gupta, Prosecutor v. Al Hassan, Case no ICC-01/12-01/18-2662, ICL 2243 (ICC 2024), 20 November 2024 (Forthcoming)
Rohit Gupta, Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony, Case no ICC-02/04-01/05-532, ICL 2242 (ICC 2024), 29 October 2024 (Forthcoming)
Rohit Gupta, Situation in the State of Palestine, Case no ICC-01/18-422, ICL 2252 (ICC 2025), 24 April 2025
Rohit Gupta, Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen, Case no ICC-02/04-01/15-2023, ICL 2157 (ICC 2022), 15 December 2022
Rohit Gupta, Situation in the State of Palestine, Case no ICC-01/18-143, ICL 2080 (ICC 2021), 5 February 2021
Rohit Gupta, Situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela I, Case no ICC-02/18-89, ICL 2195 (ICC 2024), 1 March 2024
Rohit Gupta, Prosecutor v. Yekatom and Ngaïssona, Case no ICC-01/14-01/18-2501-Red, ICL 2198 (ICC 2024), 20 May 2024
Rohit Gupta, Prosecutor v. Yekatom and Ngaïssona, Case no ICC-01/14-01/18-2502-Red, ICL 2197 (ICC 2024), 20 May 2024
Rohit Gupta, Prosecutor v. Yekatom and Ngaïssona, Case no ICC-01/14-01/18-2390-Corr, ICL 2201 (ICC 2024), 15 April 2024