Research Interests

Public International Law including the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, international disaster law. 

Additional Professional Information

  • Interim Director of Research Students, IALS (2023 onwards)
  • Dean Faculty of Law University of Victoria (2018-2021) 
  • Head of School of Law University of Reading (2014 -2018) 
  • Current member of International Disaster and Emergency Law Network 
  • Member of Board of Every Casualty Worldwide 

Publications

Books

‘ Protection of the Environment during Armed Conflict’ in S. Alam, Md J. H. Bhuiyan, T. Chowdhury and E. Techera (eds.) Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law, 2nd Edition Routledge 2021. 

 ‘International Health Regulations and Compliance in Asia’ co-authored with Preethi Lolaksha Nagaveni in V. Ramraj (ed.) Covid-19 in Asia: Law and Policy Contexts, Oxford University Press 2021. 

The Responsibility to Protect in International Law: An Emerging Paradigm Shift, Routledge 2016.  

Susan C. Breau and Katja L.H. Samuel, Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law. Edward Elgar 2016 

‘Responses by States’ in Susan C. Breau and Katja L.H. Samuel, Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law. Edward Elgar 2016. 

 ‘Peacekeeping Operations’ in Gentian Zyberi (ed), An Institutional Approach to Responsibility to Protect, Cambridge University Press, 2013. 

 ‘Civilian Casualties and Drone Attacks, Issues in International Humanitarian Law’ in R. Barnidge (ed), The Liberal Way of War, Ashgate, 2013. 

‘Protection of the Environment during Armed Conflict’ in S. Alam, Md J. H. Bhuiyan, T. Chowdhury and E. Techera (eds.) Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law, Routledge 2013. 

 ‘An Assessment of the Gaza Report’s Contribution to the Development of International Humanitarian Law’ chapter in D. Lovell (ed.) 'Protecting Civilians during Violent Conflict: Theoretical and practical issues for the 21st Century’, Ashgate 2012. 

'International Humanitarian Law Obligations of States and Military Coalitions Involved in Military Missions’ in M. Odello & R. Piotrowicz (eds), International Military Missions, Brill 2011. 

S. Breau and I. Carr, ‘Towards achieving a balance: Humanitarian Aid, Human Rights and Corruption’, in M. Odello and S. Cavandoli, Emerging Areas of Human Rights in the 21st Century: The Role of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Routedge 2011. 

 ‘The right to a home and disasters’ in L. Fox and J. Sweeny, Home, Displacement and Dispossession, Ashgate 2010.  

 ‘The right to life of detainees in armed conflict’ in J. Yorke (ed) Orientations of the Right and Value of Life, Ashgate 2010. 

Kerim Yildiz and Susan Breau, The Kurdish Conflict: Political Context, the Law of Armed Conflict, and Post-Conflict Mechanisms, Routledge 2010. 

Elizabeth Wilmshurst and Susan Breau editors, Perspectives on the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge University Press, 2007.    

‘Protected Persons and Objects’ in Perspectives on the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, edited by Elizabeth Wilmshurst and Susan Breau, Cambridge University Press, 2007.  

 Javaid Rehman and Susan Breau, editors, Religion, Human Rights and International Law, Martinus Nijhoff, 2007.  

‘Human Rights and Cultural Relativism: The False Dichotomy’ in Religion, Human Rights and International Law, edited by Javaid Rehman and Susan Breau, Martinus Nijhoff, 2007.

Gerhard Hafner, Marcelo Kohen, Susan Breau, State Practice Regarding State Immunities, Martinus Nijhoff 2006.  Monograph was the result of a two year long research project funded by Council of Europe on European practice on State Immunity.  

Susan Breau and Agnieszka Jachec-Neale, editors, Current Developments in International Humanitarian Law, BIICL, 2006.   

‘The Humanitarian Law Implications of the Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories’, in Current Developments in International Humanitarian Law, edited by Susan Breau and Agnieszka Jachec-Neale, BIICL, 2006.  

 ‘A Comparison of the United Kingdom and Canadian Approaches to Human Security’ Canada-UK Perspectives on Public International Law. edited by Christopher Waters, Martinus Nijhoff, 2006. 

 ‘The international legal framework’ in Choice of Force: Special Operations for Canada, edited by David Last, and Bernd Horn, McGill Queen’s University Press, 2005.   

Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations and Collective Responsibility, Cameron May 2005. 

Articles

‘Reflections on the treatment of the decision-making process in Section 4 of the Joint Committee’s drone strikes report’ in (2016) 3 Journal on the use of force and international law 227 

 ‘State Practice, Customary Humanitarian Law and Civilian Casualties of Armed Conflict’ in State Practice & International Law Journal (SPILJ) Vol. 1 Issue 1 (2014) 

‘Low Yield Tactical Nuclear Weapons and the Rule of Distinction’ (2013)15 Flinders Law Journal Volume 2 

Susan Breau and Rachel Joyce, ‘The Responsibility to Record Civilian Casualties’ (2013) 5 Global Responsibility to Protect 28. 

Susan Breau and Marie Aronsson, ‘Drone Attacks, International Law and the Recording of Civilian Casualties’ (2012) 35 Suffolk Transnational Law Review 255. 

Susan Breau and Rachel Joyce, ‘Identifying and recording every casualty of armed conflict’, (2011) 5 International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies 357. 

 ‘2009, Year in Review’ (2010) 12 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 195, Asser Institute, Cambridge University Press. 

 ‘The International Law Implications of the Turkish/Kurdish Conflict’ (2008) 41 Revue Belge de Droit International 431. 

 ‘The Contribution of the Special Court for Sierra Leone to the Development of International Humanitarian Law’, (2008) 34 Commonwealth Law Bulletin 817.   

‘The Constitutionalization of the International Legal Order’, (2008) 21 Leiden Journal of International Law 545. 

 ‘The situation in south-east Turkey: Is it an armed conflict for the purpose of international humanitarian law?’ in (2007) 12 Kurdish Human Rights Project Legal Review 107. 

 ‘The Vocabulary of Armed Conflict’, (2006) 17 Finnish Yearbook of International Law 359. 

 ‘The Impact of the Responsibility to Protect on Peacekeeping’, (2006) 11 Journal of Conflict and Security Law 429. 

 ‘The Effect of the Iraqi Tribunal on International Peace in Security’ in Crime and Justice, the Effectiveness of International Criminal Tribunals, Special Symposium Edition of Merkourios (2006) The Utrecht Journal for International and European Law 55.

 ‘International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’, (2005) 54 International and Comparative Legal Quarterly 1003. 

Susan Breau, ‘United Kingdom Response to Terrorism and the Response of the Courts to these Measures’, (2004-2005) 11 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 83, pp. 83-96.