International Law and Diplomacy in a Changing World: A Conversation with Ambassador Mario Oyarzábal
Location:
Moot Court Room,
Old College
Date/time
Fri 6 February 2026
13:00 - 14:00
Join Dr Francisco J. Quintana (Lecturer in Global Law, Edinburgh Law School) for a wide-ranging conversation with Ambassador Mario Oyarzábal on the relationship between international law and diplomacy, law-making as a professional practice, and how the day-to-day work of international law continues even as the international order appears to be fracturing.
Ambassador Mario Oyarzábal is the Legal Adviser to the Argentine Foreign Ministry. He is a member of the United Nations International Law Commission, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and an associate member of the Institut de Droit international. A career diplomat since 1997, Ambassador Oyarzábal served as Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) between 2020 and 2025, also representing Argentina before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Previously, he was Deputy Permanent Representative of Argentina before the United Nations Security Council from 2013 to 2014. He taught a special course at The Hague Academy of International Law in 2020 and has been invited to deliver the general course.
Photo attribution: Butterfly voyages Creative Commons (3.0)