Abstract
A recognized specialist in general international law, the law of European institutions and the philosophy of international law, Samantha Besson, born in 1973, is part of a generation of researchers committed to revitalizing philosophical reflection on international law and its institutions. Active in both French and English, she has for many years explored the multiple facets of the question of the legitimacy (notably democratic) of international law, as well as the questions of the sources and subjects of international law and the international responsibility of States and international organizations. In the course of her career, she has also been involved in a number of specific areas of international and European law, most notably international and European human rights law and comparative international law.
Whether as a principle of justification for comparative and European anti-discrimination law, as a value underlying a democratic theory of national, European or international law, or, most recently, as a fundamental status protected by international and European human rights law, it is above all the principle of individual equality that forms the backdrop to Samantha Besson's work. What distinguishes her contribution is both a taste for comparison linked to the plurality of rights of the world's peoples, and an interdisciplinary approach made necessary by the exploration of the links between law, morality and politics. From her first forays into the world of private law, and in particular contract law, she has also retained a particular interest in the "public/private" distinction in Western law, and analyzes its various variations and dilutions in contemporary international law.
