Dr Joshua Andresen

Biography

Joshua (JD, Yale; PhD, Northwestern) is an international lawyer working in national security and human rights law. His areas of expertise range from the law of armed conflict and international human rights law to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, including sanctions compliance and the regulation of cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Joshua’s recent writing has focused on legal questions that arise in modern conflict and counterterrorism operations due to power asymmetries, the geography of the battlespace, and technological developments, with influential pieces appearing in the Yale Journal of International Law, the Harvard National Security Journal, and an anthology by Oxford University Press. Given the practical focus of his work, Joshua has been called upon to advise states, provide expert opinions for international tribunals, and contribute to the work of UN Special Rapporteurs.

Prior to Surrey, Joshua was Senior Policy Advisor for Europe, Russia, and Central Asia in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He was also an Attorney-Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser for African and Near Eastern Affairs and in the Office of the Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs. Joshua’s work at the State Department was supported by a Robina Human Rights Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Yale Law School. Joshua’s international law and human rights experience includes work at the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the High Court of Bombay. While in law school, Joshua also worked to defend people facing the death penalty with the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Equal Justice Initiative. Prior to his law and policy work, Joshua was Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Beirut.

Research interests

Joshua's research focuses on legal questions raised by contemporary armed conflict and counterterrorism operations. Among the questions Joshua's work engages are how the laws of armed conflict should be reconfigured for military operations today; under what circumstances International Human Rights Law, rather than International Humanitarian Law, should govern counterterrorism operations; whether civilian protections in armed conflict are adequate and effective; whether a more permissive or more restrictive law of armed conflict today is in states' national security interests; and whether procedural and justiciability barriers should prevent judicial review of military activity in U.S. courts.

Teaching

International Humanitarian Law, Public Law 1 - Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

Postgraduate research supervision

Joshua is happy to consider supervising PhDs in national security and human rights law including (but not limited to):

• Critical evaluations of the law of armed conflict
• Law of armed conflict litigation
• Human rights issues and litigation arising out of armed conflict
• Anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulation
• Cryptocurrency and exchange (VA and VASP) regulation
• National and international security issues arising from climate change
• Critical engagements with the revisionist school of just war theory

School duties

Director of PhD Admissions

University roles and responsibilities

Senate member