Professor Joshua Castellino


Professor of International and Comparative Law

Email

j.castellino@derby.ac.uk

About

I am a Professor of International & Comparative Law at University of Derby, UK (0.2 FTE) and Co-Executive Director of Minority Rights Group International (MRG). I founded the Law School at Middlesex University and served as Dean until 2018, stepping down to take on the role at Minority Rights Group while retaining my Chair at the University until November 2022. At MRG I engage in global research and advocacy, leading a fifty-five-year-old organisation headquartered in London with offices in Kampala and Budapest, that sits at the centre of a network of over 300 partner organisations and is currently implementing 40 projects in sixty countries. I collaborate with law-oriented organisations, serving as Chair of Privacy International and serving pro bono on governing boards of the European Centre for Constitutional & Human Rights, Germany; European Centre for Minority Issues, Germany; European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, UK; Institute on Statelessness & Inclusion, Netherlands; Survival International, UK and CoQual Research, USA. In my ex-officio MRG role, I am a Proprietor of Minority Rights Group Europe, Hungary, and a member of the governing board of Minority Rights Group Africa, Uganda. I have advisory roles at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (USA), the World Economic Forum (Switzerland), the African Commission of Human & Peoples’ Rights (Gambia), has been elected as a member of the Right Livelihood Award (Sweden) and is listed as Door Tenant at 25 Bedford Row (UK). 

Born and brought up in Mumbai, India, I worked as a journalist for Indian Express Group in the 1990s, before winning a Chevening Scholarship in 1995 to undertake an MA in International Law & Politics in the UK, completing my PhD in International Law in 1998. I have published nine books and over a hundred articles on international law & human rights over twenty-five years in academia, including the Minority Rights Series (Oxford University Press). I engage with questions of international law, minority and indigenous peoples’ rights at inter-governmental, parliamentary, apex courts, bar associations, civil society organisations and Universities across the globe. I helped design and participated in the European Union China Diplomatic & Expert Dialogue on Human Rights (2002-2006) and was appointed Chair by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the 8th Forum on Minority Issues (2015), an inter-governmental dialogue with civil society under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council. My latest book is titled Calibrating Colonial Crime: Reparations & the Crime of Unjust Enrichment (Bristol University Press, 2024).

Professional interests

Research interests

Qualifications

Recent conferences

International experience

Pro bono engagement on the boards of the following organisations (at present):

Over the last twenty five years in academia and practice I have worked in over 60 countries with practicing lawyers, judiciaries, parliamentarians, academics and students.   

Recent publications

Forthcoming books: