About me

David Fisher, B.A. 1978 (Fordham University), J.D. 1981 (New York Law School), LL.D. 1990 (Stockholm University). Professor of international law since 2005. Research fields include human rights, conflict of laws and outer space law. The present focus of my research is human rights in Southeast Asia. 
 

Teaching

I have mainly lectured in the fields of public international law, the conflict of laws and Swedish constitutional law.

Research

Research interests

The focus of my research is on public international law, particularly human rights. My doctoral dissertation ”Prior Consent to International Direct Satellite Broadcasting” (1990) addressed the question whether satellite television could – consistent with international law - be broadcast to a foreign state’s population without the prior consent of that state. My book ”Defamation via Satellite: A European Law Perspective” (1998) examined which country’s rules of tort law and jurisdiction apply to the allegedly defamatory content of transborder satellite television broadcasts in Europe. My research has, since the start of the millennium, focused on human rights in Southeast Asia and been published as law journal articles or book chapters.

Academic background
I defended my doctoral dissertation, entitled ”Prior Consent to International Direct Satellite Broadcasting,” at the Stockholm University Faculty of Law in 1990. The dissertation project was supervised by Professor Lars Hjerner. Between 1991-95, I worked at the Faculty as a postdoctoral fellow in private international law. I was appointed the following year as senior lecturer in law. In 1998, I was granted the title of associate professor in international law and was promoted in 2005 to full professor in the same subject.

Visiting Scholar
Peking University, Faculty of Law, Beijing 
Assumption University, Faculty of Law, Bangkok 
Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Law, Bangkok 

Academic board membership
Deputy board member, Research Committee, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University (2006-2008)
Deputy board member, Information Committee, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University (1999-2001)

Conferences
Member, Panel Selection Committee for European Society of International Law Conference, Stockholm 2021
Moderator for panel discussion ”EU/China Relations-Fiscal and Energy issues” at the conference ”EU-China relations in the post-financial and fiscal crisis” Stockholm/Helsinki 2015

Outreach
Fellow, Stockholm Center for International Law & Justice (SCILJ) 
Member, International Advisory Board, Legal Aid Network [a human rights organization], Kachin State, Burma (Myanmar)
Academic advisor, Federal Law Academy, Kachin State, Burma (Myanmar)
 

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Book Mänskliga rättigheter
  2020. David I. Fisher.

  Mänskliga rättigheter behandlar det internationella skyddet för mänskliga rättigheter på såväl global som regional nivå. På global nivå presenteras Universal Declaration of Human Rights samt diverse FN-konventioner, inklusive sådana som behandlar folkmord, diskriminering och barnets rättigheter. På regional nivå står Europakonventionen i fokus, inklusive dess ställning i svensk rätt. Boken redogör också för de internationella instanser som ska se till att mänskliga rättigheter respekteras i praktiken. Europadomstolen ägnas därför särskild uppmärksamhet.

• Report The ‘Regional and National Context’ under the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration and its Implications for Minority Rights
  2017. David Fisher.

  The notion that human rights are universal, i.e., to be applied in the same way everywhere regardless of regional or national particularities, has in recent decades been called into question by governments in various regions of the world. These governments argue that the nature and scope of international human rights obligations may be determined in the context of each region’s and nation’s unique “culture”, broadly defined as history, religion, need for economic development, etc. Such cultural relativism is known in East Asia under the rubric of ‘Asian Values’ and is embraced in the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) through that instrument’s reference to the need to consider the “regional and national context”. The ten member nations of ASEAN span a population of over 600 million and form a rich mosaic of national and minority cultures. Examples of current rights issues faced by the region’s myriad minority populations are resettlement of indigenous groups in Laos for the building of infrastructure projects; the protection of language rights among Thailand’s Khmer-speaking minority; and human security issues in Burma’s ethnic states. Minority cultures thus seems an apt topic for inquiry under the AHRD and, in that connection, the present article will address what the AHRD’s embrace of the “regional and national context” likely implies for the protection of minority rights. For purposes of this article, minority rights will refer to the rights of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities “to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language” within the meaning of Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

• Chapter The Progression of International Law in Fostering the Extraterritorial Prosecution of Child Sex Tourist Offences
  2014. David I. Fisher. International Law and Changing Perceptions of Security, 106-115
• Chapter The Human Right to Mother-Tongue Schooling: A View of Thailand
  2012. David Fisher. Utblick och Inblick, 167-180
• Article The Emerging Right to Development and Its Relationship to First Generation Rights
  2010. David Fisher. Scandinavian Studies in Law 55, 321-338
• Article Responding to the Human Rights Situation in Burma
  2008. David Fisher. Legal Journal on Burma 30, 33-44
• Article Olle Mårsäter, Folkrättsligt skydd av rätten till domstolsprövning
  2006. David Fisher. Juridisk tidskrift vid Stockholms unviersitet (1), 214-220
• Article The Right to Development: Between ”Asian Values” and Western Liberalism (Part II)
  2006. David Fisher. Juridisk Tidskrift (1), 11-26
• Article The Right to Development: Between ”Asian Values” and Western Liberalism (Part I)
  2005. David Fisher. Juridisk Tidskrift (4), 783-810
• Chapter Post-September 11: A Right to Self-Defence against International Terrorism?
  2004. David Fisher. Peace and Security, 177-192
• Article Injury to Rights of Personality Caused by Satellite Programme Contents
  2000. David Fisher. Scandinavian Studies in Law 39, 419-430
• Chapter Private International Law
  2000. David Fisher. Swedish Law in the New Millennium
• Book Processrätt III
  2000. David Fisher.
• Book Defamation via Satellite
  1998. David Fisher.
• Chapter Private International Law
  1994. David Fisher. Swedish Law, 566-585
• Book English Law Dictionary - engelsk-svensk-engelsk
  1990. David Fisher.
• Thesis (Doc) Prior Consent to International Direct Satellite Broadcasting
  1990. David Fisher.
• Report International Law and Satellite Advertising
  1986. David Fisher.

Show all publications by David Fisher at Stockholm University