A conversation with a philosophy professor set Antoine on the path he follows today: studying international courts through the lens of storytelling. In the video, he explains how this perspective grew naturally out of his background in law and philosophy, and how it led him to focus on the stories courts tell.
Antoine reflects on the tensions his topic generates, caught between those who dismiss storytelling as irrelevant and those who place too much faith in it. He speaks about the ethical challenges that arise when working with narratives tied to real human losses, especially in the context of climate change. At the same time, he shows how court decisions become reference points in public debate, picked up and translated by different actors who give these stories a life beyond the courtroom.
Watch the full video to learn more about Antoine’s research.
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Antoine De Spiegeleir is a PhD researcher in the EUI Department of Law. His doctoral thesis, "Narrating International Law at the World Court," is supervised by Neha Jain (former EUI professor). He also serves as an Internal Reviewer for the European Journal of Legal Studies, based in the Department of Law. His recent publications include “Storytelling in the Advisory Proceedings on Climate Change” in The Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis (eds. Maria Antonia Tigre and Armando Rocha, Brill Nijhoff), or “Climate Change Storytelling and Masterplots at the European Court of Human Rights” in Law and Humanities.