Ernesto J. Féliz De Jesús
Status: D Phil candidate

College: Lady Margaret Hall
Supervisor: Dr Alexander Orakhelashvili

Start Date: Michaelmas Term 2006 (M.Phil), Trinity Term 2008 (D.Phil)
End Date (projected): 2010

D.Phil Topic and Short Description:

Obligations Erga Omnes as Multilateral International Obligations

Mr Féliz De Jesús’s thesis will attempt to discern the traits which are common to all obligations erga omnes but which are not shared by them with any other multilateral obligation. The thesis will show that there indeed exist obligations owed to the ‘international community as a whole’, but not in the way explained by the International Court of Justice in the Barcelona Traction. The thesis will explain, in fact, that through the 1966 decision in the South West Africa Cases, the concept of obligations erga omnes could be explained in a more coherent way than in Barcelona Traction; for instance, by clarifying that the importance of a multilateral obligation has nothing to do with whether the breach of that obligation impairs the legal interests of every other State (as obligations erga omnes do) or of only one other State. The thesis will explain that obligations erga omnes actually arise from the creation in general international law of new, ordinary, customary obligations incompatible with a Vattelian conception of international law, which nevertheless left the classical system of state responsibility intact. The thesis will combine the works of Wesley N Hohfeld and Willem Riphagen’s classification of international norms (as primary, secondary, and tertiary) to achieve this purpose.

Education

2006-2007   M Phil (Oxon)
2005-2006   M Jur (Oxon)
2001-2002   Associate Degree in International Business (Tompkins Cortland Community College – PUCMM)
2000–2005   Licenciado en Derecho (Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra) (PUCMM)

Employment and Extra-Curricular Activities

2007-2008   Treasurer (Oxford Pro Bono Publico)
2006-2007   Senior Editor (Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal)
2003-2005   Paralegal and Lawyer (Víctor Castellanos & Asociados)

Publications

Books

Los Límites a la Libertad de Expresión en la Constitución (Ediciones Jurídicas Trajano Potentini, Santiago de los Caballeros 2007) [Undergraduate dissertation, published by PUCMM]

Case Notes

Pleno, Sentencia del 9 de febrero de 2005, No 4, Juventud Nacional Comprometida, Inc (JUNCO) and ors v The State and ors, Direct Constitutional Complaint Procedure, BJ 1131, International Law in Domestic Courts Note No 1095 (DO 2005) (Supreme Court of Justice of the Dominican Republic) [forthcoming]

Pleno, Sentencia del 14 de diciembre de 2005, No 9, Servicio Jesuita a Refugiados y Migrantes (SJRM) and ors v The State and ors, Direct Constitutional Complaint Procedure, BJ 1141.77; International Law in Domestic Courts Note No 1075 (DO 2005) (Supreme Court of Justice of the Dominican Republic) [forthcoming]

Short Articles

‘Legalización de la ilegalidad’ (2004) 181 Gaceta Judicial 10