Pacta sunt servanda.
HENNEBEL AvocatsInternational Legal Strategy
A boutique international legal strategy firm, engaged in situations and proceedings with a strong international dimension and major legal, political, economic and human stakes.
Practice areas
Eight practice areas, one exacting standard.
An international legal strategy firm acting in situations where law, diplomacy and power dynamics converge.
I
Removal of INTERPOL red notices, extradition and transnational defence
Challenging the alert, defending against extradition, addressing the banking and informational fallout: a notice is disarmed early, from a position of strength.
II
International sanctions, delisting and compliance strategy
OFAC, EU and United Nations designations, asset freezes, delisting, licences, banking overcompliance: taking on sanctions through the law, where their legality and proportionality are decided.
III
Lawfare, denial of justice and transnational repression
Politico-judicial machinery, SLAPPs, notices and extraditions pursued for political ends: dismantling the weaponisation of the law, forum by forum.
IV
Investment, armed conflict and emergency regimes
Treaty protection, ICSID arbitration, expropriation, war clauses, enforcement of awards, defence of States: investment exposed to sovereign risk.
V
Exposed companies, human rights and exceptional situations
Duty of vigilance, CSDDD, international humanitarian law, criminal exposure of executives, climate litigation: securing corporate decisions in sensitive regions.
VI
International investigations, transnational crime and crisis management
Mutual legal assistance, cross-border searches, corruption, money laundering, negotiated justice, crisis management: regaining control of the multi-jurisdictional investigation.
VII
Immunities, diplomatic protection and sovereign defence
States, sovereign assets, leaders, diplomatic missions, diplomatic protection, inter-State disputes: sovereign defence in all its dimensions.
VIII
Human rights, international justice and strategic litigation
Arbitrary detention, fair trial, torture, non-refoulement, interim measures, UN mechanisms and regional courts: moving the case to the forum where the law regains its force.
What sets the firm apart
Solutions, not merely answers
I
Understanding the true stakes and expectations
What the law calls a case is, for the person living it, a position to hold, a source of suffering, a downfall: liberty under threat, the risk of detention, an unfair trial, economic or reputational exposure. Identifying what must be preserved, what may be conceded and what the opposing party is truly after requires a fine command of the case in its entirety: its legal dimension, but also its political drivers, its economic consequences and its social environment. This reading is the essential precondition of any legal and strategic thinking.
II
Mastering the case and building the narrative
To master a case is to hold every element of it and to govern its meaning on the three stages on which it plays out simultaneously: the legal stage, where the narrative must withstand adversarial scrutiny; the diplomatic stage, where it must be defensible by those who carry it; the public stage, where it must persuade beyond the technical file.
III
Devising a strategy equal to the case's complexity, and anticipating
For each case, we draw up a map of actions and risks: the sequences, the steps envisaged, their order, their expected effects in each jurisdiction, and the consequences of each decision for the avenues that remain open. This strategic map is built like a campaign plan. We play the endgame, not the next move.
IV
A bespoke, multilingual service, with discretion and confidentiality
These cases tolerate neither standardisation nor delegation. A lean structure, the direct involvement of the founding partner, work conducted in French, English and Spanish, in the very language of the proceedings and the evidence, all towards a bespoke service. Discretion in strategic execution goes hand in hand with confidentiality and professional secrecy, the imperative values of sensitive cases.
Ludovic Hennebel
International lawyerLegal strategistUN expertCESCRProfessor, AMUInternational speaker
Ludovic Hennebel acts as counsel in some of the most complex and sensitive international cases, involving legal, political, diplomatic and reputational stakes of the highest order.
He reads the law as a field of forces, identifies its lines of tension and its tipping points, and mobilises it as an instrument of protection, strategy and rebalancing.
What his peers say
Testimonials and references
Philip Alston
Professor, New York University · Former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and on extrajudicial executions
Professor Ludovic Hennebel brings exceptional expertise on international human rights law, whether of the UN, Inter-American, European or African systems. He is that rare bird: a deeply experienced and highly successful practitioner combined with a leading scholar and authority. (2022)
Hélène Tigroudja
Professor · Member of the UN Human Rights Committee
A stellar and immensely respected public international law and human rights lawyer: smart and thorough in his strategic litigation approach, with an amazing sense of legal creativity and rhetoric coupled with an unparalleled knowledge of regional and universal human rights mechanisms. Probably one of the most brilliant of his generation. (2023)
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro
Former Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria · Former Commissioner, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Professor Ludovic Hennebel is a formidable lawyer with an extraordinary experience in international law in the spheres of the UN and Inter-American human rights systems, as well as other regional systems. There are very few lawyers able to operate in such different galaxies. (2022)
Fabián Salvioli
Former UN Special Rapporteur on truth, justice and reparation · Former Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee
He combines an extraordinary and unsurpassed knowledge of international human rights law with practical experience and very solid understanding of the functioning of the international justice system. He is a brilliant lawyer, an excellent strategist and a master of rhetoric, with an unparalleled ability to solve complex problems. (2022)
Further reading
Thought in the service of law and justice.
Scholarship grounded in the practice of international mechanisms. An in-depth analysis, a practical answer, a leading decision.
Pacta
Strategic notes
In-depth analyses of international mechanisms, sanctions regimes and immunities.
Read the notesPraxis
Practitioner questions
What practitioners actually ask: time limits, admissibility, urgency, choice of forum. Precise answers, straight to the point.
BrowseCorpus
Case law
The leading decisions, analysed for what they make possible.
ExploreLet us talk about your situation.
Every case is unique. An initial confidential orientation discussion, without mutual commitment. In French, English and Spanish.