Can international law reclaim its authority after failing to prevent or even limit recent international atrocities?

Elsa Wyllie is a criminal defence and international criminal law practitioner based in Vancouver, British Columbia, working across Canada, London, and The Hague. She is Events Officer for the IBA War Crimes Committee and co-chairs the committee's annual conference, Masters of War, at The Hague for a second consecutive year. She is currently co-counsel with Kate Gibson for Prosper Mugiraneza at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and is instructed on Article 15 communications to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Her international practice is grounded in work that began long before she entered law. As a UNDP Project Manager in Rwanda, she managed a disarmament and reintegration programme for demobilised militia soldiers, working from the same office in which Roméo Dallaire had attempted to stop the genocide. That experience shaped her understanding of international law not as an abstraction but as a tool with real consequences for real people, and it remains the foundation of how she approaches her clients and her cases. She has contributed to the IBA/USAID Ukraine Defence Counsel Training Project, providing workshops for Ukrainian war crimes defence lawyers and consulting on the IHL/ICL training manual. She is a member of the IBA Bar Issues Committee Crimes Against Humanity Convention Working Group and has participated in Chatham House dialogue on AI and atrocity prevention. She has served as a judge at the ICC Moot Court Competition at The Hague and was selected as a researcher for the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, the independent advisory body of the UK/Canada Media Freedom Coalition. She holds an M.A. with distinction in International Law and Security from the University of Birmingham, and an LL.M. with honours from Columbia University. Her domestic practice in BC spans serious criminal defence, including murder, sexual offences, and complainant counsel work, as well as human rights proceedings. She has appeared at all levels of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada. She is a member of Church Court Chambers, London, and a Board member of the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia.