ERC Starting Grant for Dr. Panos Merkouris: ‘All through my academic studies I have been known as the interpretation guy’

Dr Panos Merkouris, associate professor Public International Law, has received an ERC Starting Grant. The European Research Council (ERC) awards these personal grants of EUR 1.5 million to excellent researchers in order to stimulate groundbreaking research in Europe.

What’s Merkouris his project about? Why did he choose this specific topic? What does he hope to achieve? Merkouris: ‘My proposal is entitled ‘The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law’ (Acronym: TRICI-Law, which Panos prefers to pronounce as ‘Tricky Law’ as a nod to how complex Customary International Law (CIL) is).

What is your proposal about?

‘This ERC proposal revolves around the rules of interpretation of customary international law (CIL). CIL along with treaties are the rules most often used in international law. Treaties are written documents that are signed and ratified by States (and international organizations) and create binding obligations. CIL rules also create binding obligations, however, the difference is that unlike treaties, CIL is unwritten and it emerges as a result of State practice and the belief that something is law (opinio juris)’.

‘To make matters even worse, whereas rules of interpretation of treaties have been enshrined in Articles 31-33 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), the rules of interpretation of CIL have not been the subject of critical study. By not knowing the rules that govern the interpretation of CIL, we end up playing a ‘game’ the rules of which are unknown, and by consequence predictability is far from guaranteed’.

‘Therefore the aim of this project is to determine the existence and to examine the content of the rules of interpretation of customary international law’.

Why this specific topic?

‘I have always had a fascination with interpretation as a process. All through my academic studies I have been known as the ‘interpretation guy’ and to be honest I have never looked back with regret’.

‘As to the specific topic, that of interpretation of CIL, this was an idea that I had stumbled on mid-way during my PhD. At that point I had just discarded a particular hypothesis for my final Chapter, which although beautiful (in my own extremely subjective view!) was inconsistent with my previous findings. So my PhD plan had taken a huge blow, and I had to find a new structure for my PhD. During this period in time, the idea of interpretation of CIL presented itself, in the form of a question mark. Why do we speak only of interpretation of treaties? Why can’t CIL also be open to interpretation? After putting down the idea on paper, I started researching it and the more I researched it, the more it felt like everything fell into their proper place. Part of the idea also fit perfectly with my PhD, which was an added bonus. Since my PhD, I have been presenting in conferences, and writing on this overarching idea (which ended up becoming the TRICI-Law project) and now with the ERC Starting Grant I have the opportunity to tackle it along with a group of young researchers and in this process further our understanding of CIL’.

What and who do you hope to reach?

‘The results will influence the study and theory of CIL; will lead to a re-conceptualization of the theory of sources of international law; will spark a long overdue debate on the interaction between sources of international law; will further our understanding of the process of interpretation and of the basic precepts of the international legal system; and its findings will become the staple point of reference by, in essence, anybody who is affected by international law. Its ultimate outcomes will clarify the foundations of the international legal system, reduce normative conflict, and provide greater legal certainty and foreseeability in all international law-related interactions’.

‘This is the legal, professional and official answer to the question, which I used in the proposal as well, and I stand by it. The more literary description of what need TRICI-Law aims to address is that study and clarification of the interpretative rules have not occurred with respect to CIL. It is exactly this imbalance in our understanding of the ‘life-cycle’ of CIL and the resulting consequences that TRICI-Law aims to address’.

To what specific part or activity are you really looking forward to in this project?

‘It is very difficult to pick out one and only one aspect of the project above the rest. If you were to twist my arm, I would say two things. One, the feeling of exhilaration of being like a discoverer, entering into unchartered territories’.

‘The second thing, is studying this process of interpretation of CIL and its counterpart with respect to treaties as it has evolved through time’.

What did you first do when you heard about receiving this grant?

‘The first few hours of realizing I was officially an ERC Starting Grant laureate are a bit of a haze. Calling family, friends and colleagues sharing the good news, arranging to celebrate over food and wine (because unlike what you might have heard from some seriously unreliable sources, Greeks prefer wine over schnapps) and re-reading the text’.

‘To be honest, I am still not sure I 100% believe that this has happened, but if it is merely a dream I am happy to stay in it for as long as possible’.

What else do you want to share on your proposal or the fact that you received this grant?

‘Firstly, that I am grateful to the ERC, and to all the evaluators and panel members for this opportunity. Secondly, that I would like to thank the Faculty for supporting my submitting the proposal and all my colleagues from the Faculty of Law and other Faculties that were kind enough to devote part of their precious time to discuss and/or read the proposal. A special thanks has to go out to Professor Brus, the Head of the Department of International Law for gently nudging me towards applying for an ERC Starting Grant, and to Alma Erenstein and Associate Professor de Hoogh, who invested an inordinate amount of their time painstakingly going through all + ∞ versions of the proposal and helped constantly improving it’.

‘As a final thought, I would like to urge anybody reading this that is contemplating applying for an ERC Grant or any other grant to simply go for it. Don’t get me wrong, it is a difficult and a frustrating process, but for those brave few souls that have persevered to the end of this Q&A and are thinking of applying for an ERC Starting Grant, I hope that you might have found something helpful in the above ramblings of a (still ecstatically happy) fool and I wish you the best of luck with your applications’.

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This article was published by the Faculty of Law.

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