Geert-Jan Knoops will be researching and teaching the political dimensions of the International Criminal Court and international tribunals, with an emphasis on how political decisions affect and are affected by international criminal proceedings brought under national and international law. He has published on a wide range of aspects of international law.

Knoops has held a visiting professorship in international criminal law at Shandong University (Jinan, China) since October 2013 and was professor of international criminal law at Utrecht University from 2003 until 2013. He holds two doctorate degrees, in criminal law from Leiden University and in international criminal law from the National University of Ireland. He further holds an LLM (Master of Law) degree from Leiden University, with a specialisation in public international law and international criminal law.

Knoops is a practising lawyer at Knoops’ International Lawyers, and has conducted proceedings in various international tribunals. On 7 January 2015 he was appointed as lead counsel in Prosecutor v. Charles Blé Goudé before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In October 2005 he was appointed expert consultant to the defence in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a case concerning one of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay which resulted in a groundbreaking ruling by the American Supreme Court in June 2006. In 2009 he also advised the Obama government on the closure of Guantanamo Bay. As an expert in international criminal law, Knoops has also been an expert witness to the Dutch parliamentary committee on the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) mission in Uruzgan (Afghanistan) and to the parliamentary committee on combating piracy.

Knoops is the author of various books about national and international law. He and his firm are also engaged in review proceedings of criminal cases of several criminal cases in the Netherlands, a number of which have been successfully reopened.