Pacta sunt servanda.
Method
Approach: international law as a field of forces
An INTERPOL red notice can restrict freedom of movement across all member States. A European asset-freeze regulation can sever banking relationships within days. An extradition request can expose an individual to years of restrictions, detention or procedural uncertainty. OFAC sanctions close off access to the world's financial markets. A weaponised investment arbitration can undermine a company for a decade.
In high-stakes transnational disputes, the law is never a neutral framework. It is shot through with asymmetries of power, reasons of State and considerable economic interests.
United Nations expert · CESCR
Chair of the Working Group on Individual Communications
Professor of international law
AMIDEX Chair of Excellence, Aix-Marseille
International lawyer
Strategic litigation
Publications
Cambridge UP · Oxford UP · Pedone
These mechanisms are not normative abstractions: they are instruments of coercion, deployed deliberately, sometimes for purposes foreign to those for which they were designed. To master this field is to understand how coercion is produced, through which vectors it spreads, and at what point it becomes irreversible.
Eight fields of action
A unified strategic grammar
These eight fields are not silos. They describe the concrete manifestations of a single configuration: one in which international law becomes an instrument of power and calls for a comprehensive strategic response. Each case typically engages several fields at once.
I.
INTERPOL, extradition & transnational defence
Challenging red notices and diffusions before the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files (CCF). Defence in extradition and surrender proceedings. Weaponised international and European arrest warrants. Parallel private legal diplomacy.
Red noticeArt. 2 and 3 of INTERPOL's ConstitutionCCF / RPDEAWFramework Decision 2002/584/JHAPreventive request
II.
International sanctions, delisting and compliance strategy
OFAC, European Union, UN, United Kingdom, Switzerland. Freezing and unfreezing of assets. Operations in sanctioned environments. Extraterritoriality and banking overcompliance. Litigated and diplomatic delisting strategies.
SDNCFSPUN OmbudspersonCJEU Art. 263 TFEUOFSISECODelistingOFAC licences
III.
Lawfare, denial of justice & transnational repression
Coordinated, politically driven prosecutions. Fragmented parallel proceedings. Systemic breaches of procedural safeguards and of the right to a fair trial. Forced exile. Strategic litigation before international bodies.
Abuse of processArbitrary detentionECHR Art. 3, 5 and 6WGADUN Special Procedures
IV.
Investment, armed conflict & emergency regimes
ICSID, UNCITRAL and ICC arbitration. Investor-State disputes in sensitive geopolitical contexts. Defence of States. Interplay with human rights, international humanitarian law, sanctions and fragile regions.
BITICSIDUNCITRALExpropriationFETISDSCounter-claimsArmed conflictsFragile regions
V.
Exposed companies, human rights & emergency situations
Geopolitical crises. Operations in conflict or sanctioned zones. Duty of vigilance and corporate responsibility. Advising exposed governance bodies. Corporate sanctions compliance.
UNGPsDuty of vigilanceCSDDDCSRDRisk advisoryBHRConflict zonesOECD Guidelines
VI.
International investigations, transnational crime & crisis management
Multi-jurisdictional criminal proceedings. International mutual legal assistance. Asset freezing and confiscation. Negotiated resolutions (DPA). Coordination of a global, multi-forum defence.
Letters rogatoryENFASTAsset freezeDPACRPCJudicial cooperation
VII.
Immunities, diplomatic protection & sovereign defence
Immunity from jurisdiction and from execution. Protection of sovereign assets. Former Heads of State and senior dignitaries. Diplomatic protection. Inter-State disputes and settlement strategies capable of pre-empting proceedings before the ICJ or other dispute settlement bodies.
2004 UN ConventionJure imperii / jure gestionisCentral banksDiplomatic protectionHeads of State
VIII.
Human rights, international justice & strategic litigation
European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, African Court. UN treaty bodies and Special Procedures. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD). Individual complaints. Litigation with a normative purpose.
ECHRACHRICCPRHuman Rights CommitteeCESCRCATWGADSpecial RapporteursNormative litigation
Analytical framework
Transnational coercion: six vectors
In emergency situations, coercion almost never stems from a single mechanism. It results from the simultaneous or sequential activation of several vectors whose effects accumulate, reinforce one another and can become difficult to reverse.
Law enforcement coercion
- INTERPOL red notice
- European or international arrest warrant
- Targeted diffusion
- Extradition request
Economic warfare
- OFAC, EU or Swiss asset freeze
- Banking overcompliance
- Blocked accounts
- Institutional de-risking
Judicial pressure
- Fragmented prosecutions
- International letters rogatory
- Freezing, seizure or confiscation of assets
- Weaponised settlement or criminal proceedings
Human rights violations
- Arbitrary detention
- Restriction of liberty
- Denial of justice
- Violation of the right to a fair trial
Institutional lawfare
- Weaponised arbitration
- Strategic complaints
- Abusive institutional referrals
- Reputational campaigns
Contested immunities
- Seizure of sovereign assets
- Prosecutions targeting former leaders
- Inter-State disputes
- Economic warfare measures
The situations handled by Hennebel Avocats are not instances of ordinary dysfunction. They arise from configurations in which coercion is produced, sustained or amplified by the law itself, through the combined activation of distinct mechanisms. The challenge, therefore, is not merely to respond to a given procedure. It is to understand how coercion spreads, through which precise legal vectors, and at what point it becomes difficult to reverse if it is not brought under control.
Foundation
Threefold authority: academic, United Nations, litigation
I. Academic
Professor of international law · AMIDEX Chair of Excellence
Professor at Aix-Marseille University (AMIDEX Chair of Excellence), visiting professor at Harvard, NYU and Sciences Po: a practice grounded in twenty years of scholarship in international law.
II. United Nations
United Nations expert · CESCR · Chair of the Working Group on Communications
Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), where he chairs the Working Group on Individual Communications: first-hand knowledge of the UN mechanisms.
III. Litigation
International lawyer · Strategic litigation
A member of the Aix-en-Provence Bar, he appears before the regional human rights courts, the UN treaty bodies and INTERPOL's bodies in the highest-stakes cases.
Philip Alston
UN Special Rapporteur · Summary executions (2004-2010) · Extreme poverty (2014-2020) · NYU
A deeply experienced and highly successful practitioner combined with a leading scholar and authority.
Hélène Tigroudja
Member of the UN Human Rights Committee (2019-2026) · Vice-Chair (2025-2026)
Smart and thorough in his strategic litigation approach, with an amazing sense of legal creativity and rhetoric.
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro
Former Chair · UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria (2011-2026) · Former Member · Inter-American Commission (2004-2011)
There are very few lawyers able to operate in such different galaxies.
Fabián Salvioli
Former Chair · UN Human Rights Committee (2009-2016) · UN Special Rapporteur · Truth, justice and reparation (2019-2024) · University of La Plata
A brilliant lawyer, an excellent strategist and a master of rhetoric, with an unparalleled ability to solve complex problems.
Method
Strategic architecture and sequencing
Four stages in which every action is designed according to its effects on the case as a whole, rather than on a single procedure taken in isolation.
01
Comprehensive diagnosis before any action
The first mistake, in a transnational case, is to act too quickly in a single jurisdiction without having mapped the entire field.
Exhaustive mapping of current or foreseeable proceedings: identification of the jurisdictions involved, characterisation of the risks by authority, analysis of the interactions between mechanisms, prioritisation of procedural urgencies.
02
Unified strategic architecture
In a sanctions matter, for instance, command of OFAC procedures, of actions before the General Court of the European Union and of compliance-driven banking effects identifies the avenues that genuinely work.
Construction of a response integrating court litigation, institutional engagement, UN mechanisms, private legal diplomacy and, where necessary, strategic communication. Each component is calibrated according to its impact on the other fronts open simultaneously.
03
Rigorous sequencing over time
Sequencing interventions, prioritising them over time and managing their interactions is a central component of the method.
Procedural time limits in transnational matters are often tight and non-renewable. A closed appeal window, a missed deadline before an international court or inaction in the face of an extradition request can permanently foreclose certain strategic options.
04
Coordination of local counsel
This overall strategic steering role is one of the most decisive sources of added value in situations of transnational exposure.
Where several jurisdictions are involved, Hennebel Avocats works in coordination with local counsel: governance of the case, consistency of legal positions, prevention of contradictions between parallel defences, and the linkage between domestic remedies and international levers.
Initial exchanges are confidential and protected by legal professional privilege. In French, English or Spanish. Where the sensitivity of the matter so warrants, secure channels can be agreed. An initial orientation discussion can be arranged without commitment, in order to assess the nature of the matter, the jurisdictions involved, the degree of urgency and whether the firm's involvement would be appropriate.
Act now
Why early engagement is decisive
In transnational disputes, time is not neutral. Every week without a coordinated strategy produces cumulative effects that are difficult to reverse. This is not merely a question of formal urgency: it is a structural reality of these matters.
Procedural windows close
Certain remedies are subject to strict time limits, some of which cannot be extended: a four-month period in which to apply to the European Court of Human Rights following the final domestic decision; admissibility requirements before the UN committees; time limits for bringing actions for annulment before the General Court of the European Union; time limits specific to national extradition, sanctions or confiscation proceedings. Allowing these deadlines to pass permanently forecloses strategic options that do not always have an equivalent.
Indirect effects accumulate
An INTERPOL notice deleted by the CCF, a designation lifted by OFAC or an entry removed from an EU list do not automatically disappear from banking compliance databases, private due diligence tools or customs and consular watch lists. These residual effects can continue to disrupt access to financial services, freedom of movement, commercial relationships or international reputation long after the formal resolution of the main proceedings.
Uncoordinated defences contradict one another
Every position taken in one jurisdiction can produce effects in the others. A statement in criminal proceedings can weaken a position in an investment arbitration. A settlement in one jurisdiction can be invoked as an admission in another. A domestic strategy can undermine an international application if it is not conceived within an overall architecture. Fragmented defences are one of the most frequent causes of an already complex situation deteriorating further.
Negotiating conditions deteriorate
A case built rigorously from the very first weeks opens genuine room for manoeuvre in negotiations with the competent authorities, international institutions, banks or diplomatic actors. A case taken up late, after several adverse decisions or contradictory positions, is structurally negotiated from a position of weakness. The credibility of a defensive position is built over time; it cannot always be repaired reactively.
Resources scatter without coordinated effect
Without a central strategic architecture, each jurisdiction mobilises its own resources for actions that may cancel one another out. The multiplication of uncoordinated fronts is the most costly form of inaction: it consumes available resources, erodes positions and produces no decisive effect on the case as a whole.
Some solutions exist only at the outset
The best victory is sometimes the one that avoids litigation altogether. Certain configurations can be defused through discreet negotiation, a preventive institutional approach, an early international application or a compliance architecture built before positions harden. Once proceedings have been initiated, the crisis has reached the media, the sanction has been imposed or the arrest has taken place, certain options disappear. Acting early means retaining access to the full range of available levers.
The analysis phase often determines the outcome. A strategic assessment conducted in the first weeks of a transnational crisis produces more useful effects than a late, defensive and fragmented intervention across several jurisdictions at once.
Results
What the method actually delivers
Without naming any case or individual, the categories of effects obtained or sought through the strategic intervention of Hennebel Avocats in its principal practice areas.
Deletion, blocking or challenge of INTERPOL red notices
Preparation and conduct of requests before the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files (CCF), grounded in non-compliance with the Rules on the Processing of Data: the political, military or instrumental character of the prosecution under Article 3 of INTERPOL's Constitution; violation of the right to a fair trial; insufficiency of the legal or factual basis in the requesting State; disproportionality of the measure; interplay with an asylum claim, extradition proceedings or international protection. Where necessary, the intervention includes managing the banking, consular and reputational effects arising from private compliance databases.
OFAC, EU and Swiss delisting strategies
Design of delisting strategies for companies, executives, economic actors or public officials exposed to restrictive measures: requests for review and challenges before the European institutions, actions for annulment before the General Court of the European Union under Article 263 TFEU, reconsideration procedures before OFAC, representations to SECO and coordination with financial institutions. The objective is to address simultaneously the designation, its banking effects, the operational restrictions and the progressive restoration of access to international financial markets.
Decisions, opinions and measures of international bodies
Applications and strategies before the international and regional human rights mechanisms: the UN Human Rights Committee, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. These procedures can yield views, opinions, urgent measures, admissibility decisions or reports on the merits, and become decisive levers in parallel strategies of protection, diplomatic advocacy or negotiation.
Diplomatic and sovereign protection strategies
Design of diplomatic protection strategies in matters involving immunities, economic warfare, inter-State disputes or the protection of sovereign actors. The firm acts for State and para-State actors in configurations where human rights, investment, immunities, sanctions, sovereignty and international responsibility intersect. The intervention may include anticipating avenues of inter-State settlement or preparing a sequence capable of leading, where the conditions are met, to proceedings before the International Court of Justice or other international fora.
Protection against extradition and transnational prosecution
Design and coordination of overall strategies in response to extradition requests, arrest warrants or politically charged criminal prosecutions. Depending on the case, the firm combines domestic remedies, national courts, the European Court of Human Rights, the UN committees, the Special Procedures, private legal diplomacy and international protection mechanisms. It acts as architect of the overall strategy, in coordination with local counsel, so as to ensure the consistency of positions and the sequencing of interventions.
Advising companies in sensitive regions
Advice to multinational companies, executives and boards operating in conflict zones, occupied territories, sanctioned environments or politically unstable jurisdictions. The work covers the analysis of civil, criminal, regulatory and reputational liability risks; the structuring of lawful operations; compliance with sanctions regimes; the duty of vigilance; the prevention of complicity risks; and the establishment of decision-making architectures that allow certain operations to be maintained, adapted or discontinued on a legally secure footing.
Hennebel Avocats does not publish named case studies. The confidentiality of its engagements is a non-negotiable condition of the way it operates. The categories of effects described here reflect types of actual interventions or strategies genuinely deployed, worded so as to protect the identity of the persons, companies, institutions and entities concerned.
In many matters, the absence of any visible intervention is precisely the result sought: a discreet negotiation that resolves a deadlock, a compliance architecture that forestalls a designation, a preventive application that defuses proceedings, international coordination that averts a contradiction between several fronts. In the most sensitive situations, the most decisive result is often the one that prevents the crisis from arising at all. Such results are not always measured in published decisions. They are seen in the effects produced.
Selectivity
The firm chooses its matters.
This selectivity is not a posture: it is the precondition of effectiveness. An engagement is accepted only if the firm is in a position to produce a decisive effect, with complete independence. The number of engagements accepted each year is deliberately limited, in order to guarantee the founder's direct personal involvement in every matter.
- Direct involvement of the founder in every matter
- Selective engagements, limited in number each year
- Initial orientation discussion, without commitment
- Urgent situations examined as a priority
- Absolute confidentiality, by default
The firm does not solicit. Every engagement accepted rests on a considered and deliberate choice, grounded in the legitimacy of the situation and the firm's capacity to mobilise the relevant levers.
Essential questions
What you need to know
Hennebel Avocats acts as architect of the overall strategy. Under the direction of its founder, the firm maps the entire field of forces: competent jurisdictions, national proceedings, regional and UN mechanisms, diplomatic levers, reputational risks, procedural time limits and the interactions between the various fronts.
On the basis of this analysis, it designs a unified response architecture. It does not take the place of local counsel where their involvement is required; it coordinates and supports them, ensures the consistency of positions in each jurisdiction, anticipates the effects of one step on the other fronts and directs the sequence of interventions over time.
This role as architect and strategic director is the firm's central added value: transforming a multiplicity of dispersed proceedings into a coherent, intelligible and results-oriented transnational strategy.
Hennebel Avocats delivers solutions to a problem, not merely answers to questions and procedural filings. Its approach is global and strategic: a high-stakes transnational situation rarely has a single dimension. It simultaneously involves the law, diplomacy, institutional power dynamics, media exposure, reputational risks and operational constraints.
The firm therefore builds its strategies on an integrated reading of all these dimensions: domestic litigation, regional human rights mechanisms, UN procedures, international sanctions regimes, INTERPOL procedures, diplomatic dynamics and the information environment.
This capacity to combine several legal systems and several registers of action within a coherent framework remains uncommon in international legal practice. It rests on a twofold experience: high-level academic practice in international law and first-hand knowledge of the United Nations mechanisms.
Hennebel Avocats does not treat the law as a succession of procedural steps. It reads it as a field of forces, and mobilises it as an instrument of protection, strategy and rebalancing.
Yes. It is in fact one of the most frequent configurations. Hennebel Avocats provides strategic support to national firms already instructed: local counsel conduct the defence in their jurisdiction, while the firm directs the international, institutional, diplomatic or UN dimension of the matter.
This involvement coordinates the various fronts, ensures the overall consistency of positions and activates levers that local counsel are not necessarily placed to mobilise on their own: regional human rights mechanisms, UN procedures, INTERPOL challenges, sanctions strategies, private legal diplomacy or reputational stabilisation.
The firm acts in a spirit of complementarity, never of substitution. Preserving the relationship between the local firm and its client is a non-negotiable condition.
By reading the situation as a system of constraints, rather than as a sum of separate proceedings. The initial mapping identifies the interactions between mechanisms, the points of tension, the contradictions that can be exploited and the windows for action that remain open.
A matter that appears locked may contain a decisive lever: an administrative decision opening an international avenue of redress; a criminal characterisation that weakens an extradition request; national proceedings that may be stayed by an international interim measure; a sanction producing disproportionate effects on human rights; or an inconsistency between several legal fronts.
Complex transnational situations almost always have a tipping point. The firm's role is to identify it, protect it and activate it before it closes.
As a matter of principle, Hennebel Avocats does not communicate publicly about its matters. Where the situation so requires, the firm's involvement can remain entirely discreet: direction of the overall strategy without any public appearance, coordination with local counsel in keeping with legal professional privilege, institutional representations conducted confidentially and exchanges confined to those strictly necessary.
Initial exchanges take place directly with the founder or under his immediate supervision. Where the sensitivity of the matter so warrants, secure channels of communication can be agreed.
In matters of high political, media or institutional exposure, discretion is not an incidental element: it forms part of the protection strategy. Some of the firm's decisive interventions are not intended to leave any public trace. That is often precisely what justifies its involvement.
Emergency strategic response mechanism. Some situations cannot accommodate the ordinary timescales of a law firm.
Crisis Room — Praesidium
An arrest linked to an INTERPOL notice, a sudden asset freeze, notification of an extradition request, a raid in the course of a transnational investigation: the first hours often determine the range of options available. The Crisis Room — Praesidium is the firm's immediate-response mechanism. It mobilises, as a matter of urgency, the full range of the firm's strategic, legal and institutional resources under a defined protocol.
Praesidium: in Roman law, the forward line of protection. What the firm mobilises is not merely a legal response: it is a perimeter of strategic protection established in the first hours.
The firm · South of France
An international practice, rooted in a place of work, silence and strategy.
Contact us
Depending on your profile, your point of entry
The firm tailors its initial exchange to the nature of the situation and the identity of the contact. Each profile has its own urgencies, its own time limits and its own priority levers.
Exposed individuals
Former leaders, opposition figures, exposed public figures
You are the subject of a red notice, an extradition request, politically motivated prosecution, or a designation on a sanctions list. Your freedom of movement, your assets or your reputation are affected. The first hours determine the range of options available.
Former Head of State · Minister · Senior official · Political leader · Journalist · Opposition figure · Dissident
Companies & Investors
Multinationals, mid-sized companies and exposed investors
Your operations are affected by sanctions, a weaponised investment arbitration, transnational criminal proceedings, or a geopolitical crisis. Your leadership is personally exposed. A strategic analysis distinct from the ordinary defence can identify untapped levers.
Multinational · Foreign investor · Executive management · Board of directors · Investment fund
Referring lawyers & Co-counsel
Firms facing a complex international dimension
Your matter requires niche expertise in international law (INTERPOL, sanctions, ECHR, UN committees, ICSID arbitration) that your firm does not cover in-house. The firm provides strategic support while fully preserving your relationship with your client. Discretion, loyalty and coordination are non-negotiable conditions.
Criminal defence firm · Business law firm · General practice firm · Foreign bar · In-house counsel
Family offices & Wealth structures
Managing sensitive exposures and complex wealth situations
The assets under management are affected by sanctions, a freeze, transnational criminal proceedings or an INTERPOL notice concerning a beneficial owner. The situation calls for discreet intervention, coordinated with the banks and local counsel. The firm handles the international dimensions without appearing in the wealth management relationship.
Family office · Private bank · Wealth manager · Fiduciary structure · International foundation
A situation to present? Urgent matters are examined as a priority.
Confidential exchanges. Legal professional privilege. In French, English and Spanish. An initial orientation discussion can be arranged without commitment.