Dr Graham Melling

Assistant Professor

School: Northumbria School of Law

Dr Graham Melling joined Northumbria Law School in April 2020. Graham holds a Ph.D in Public International Law from the University of Reading and an LL.M in International Law from the University of Sheffield. Graham has considerable experience teaching interenational law across a range of subject areas to both undergraduate and postgraduate students; along with Ph.D supervision. Graham has held visiting academic positions in Public International Law at South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China and the Open University of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Graham has undertaken peer review for a number of leading international law journals including amongst others Journal on the Use of Force in International Law; Indian Journal of International Law; along with publishers of international law texts, such as Cambridge University Press.

Graham is willing to accept Ph.D or other research proposals across the range of his research interests.

Email Graham

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Graham's research interests lie in the general field of Public International Law with particular emphasis on issues surrounding the development and creation of international legal rules regulating the use of force. Graham's research combines a deep interest in not merely the development/change of the primary rules of law but also the process by which this development occurs; for which his research has been commended by the International Law Association.

An area of particular interest is the role of the United Nations in responding to mass attrocities. Graham's research enables him to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue for the puprose of informing the the promotion and development of an international world order that has human rights protection as its guiding value.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
The protection of nationals abroad: from ‘unlawful yet tolerated’ to ‘unlawful and intolerable’., Melling, G. 17 Oct 2025, International Law and the Prohibition of Force: Exhaustion, Destruction, Rebirth?, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Has Russia Killed Article 2(4)? Evaluating the effectiveness of the prohibition of the use of force in the conduct of international affairs, Melling, G. 3 Jul 2024, In: San Diego International Law Journal
Evaluating the persisting relevance of the Uniting for Peace resolution for the maintenance of international peace and security: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Security Council Resolution 2623 (2022), Melling, G. 1 Aug 2023, In: International and Comparative Law Review
The use of force in international law, Melling, G. 11 Nov 2019, In: Journal on the Use of Force and International Law
Beyond rhetoric? Evaluating the Responsibility to Protect as a norm of humanitarian intervention, Melling, G. 7 Mar 2018, In: Journal on the Use of Force and International Law
Conceiving international law’s normative order beyond the ‘residual negative principle’, Melling, G. Nov 2018, In: Nordic Journal of International Law
The Security Council veto and Syria: responding to mass atrocities through the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, Melling, G., Dennett, A. 23 May 2018, In: Indian Journal of International Law
Murray Colin Alder, The Inherent Right of Self-Defence in International Law, Melling, G. 1 Sep 2015, In: Journal on the Use of Force and International Law
The Exercise of External Self-Determination by Indigenous Groups: The Republic of Lakotah and the Inherent Sovereignty of American Indigenous Peoples, Sargent, S., Melling, G. 22 Jul 2015, In: Sri Lanka Journal of International & Comparative Law
Indigenous Self-Determination: The Root of State Resistance, Melling, G., Sargent, S. 2012, In: Denning Law Journal