Professor Emeritus of International Law (since 2008), Stockholm University and the Swedish National Defence College (SNDC). Formerly Legal Adviser at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Professor of international law at Uppsala University 1993-1997, thereafter the same position in Stockholm.
Expert in International Law on the use of force, the Law of the UN Charter (including the Law of Peace Operations), International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law, the law of Diplomatic Protection, Foreign Investment Law and International Claims.
Born 1943
Doctor of Jurisprudence (Public International Law), Stockholm University 1979; awarded Readership (Assistant Professor) at the Faculty of Law, Stockholm University in 1983.
Assistant legal adviser at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs 1976-1982, Legal Adviser at the Legal and Consular Department of the Ministry from 1982 on, Special Legal Adviser of the Ministry for Public International Law (UD:s folkrättsrådgivare) and Assistant Under-Secretary (departementsråd) 1987-1993.
Dr Bring has represented Sweden in the Sixth (legal) Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations for a number of years. He participated in the Thomson/Blackwell humanitarian missions to former Yugoslavia reporting on treatment of prisoners in Bosnia to the Committee of senior Officials of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (1992-93). In March 1994 the Swedish Foreign Minister appointed him head of a human rights mission to China and Tibet, reporting to the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (the Hague) and, since 2002, of the Swedish Academy of History and Antiquities (Vitterhetsakademien).
Dr Bring has published a considerable number of books and scientific papers, in the Swedish language one book on the Law of Disarmament (1987) and another on the United Nations Charter and World Politics (2002). His doctoral thesis on investment protection is summarized in the article ”The Impact of Developing States on International Customary Law concerning Protection of Foreign Property”, Scandinavian Studies in Law 1980. The second edition of his International Criminal Law in Historical Perspective was published in 2002.
His most recent books (in Swedish) include a history of neutrality (2008), a cultural history of human rights (2011) and a book on cultural property disputes,“The Parthenon Syndrome” (2015).
In October 1993 he was appointed professor of Public International Law at the University of Uppsala.
In February 1995 he was appointed Swedish Conciliator under the European Convention on Conciliation and Arbitration within the CSCE (now OSCE).
In December 1997 he was appointed Carl Lindhagen Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, Stockholm University. He also served as professor in international law at the Swedish National Defence College (Försvarshögskolan). He is a member of the Swedish Foreign Ministry Delegation on International Law (UD:s folkrättsdelegation). He is Chairman of the Swedish Branch of the International Law Association and was until 2007 a member of the Council of the San Remo Institute of International Humanitarian Law.
In January 1998 he was commissioned by Sida, the Swedish International Development Authority (together with the Director of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs), to report on human rights, democracy and constitutional law developments in Vietnam.
In June 1999 the Swedish Government appointed him as a new Swedish member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (Permanenta skiljedomstolen) in the Hague.
In March 2004 he was elected a member of the The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities (Vitterhetsakademin).
Between July 2005 and August 2008 professor Bring was Head of the International Law Center of the Swedish National Defence College. Thereafter he has served as a professor emeritus at Stockholm University and the Defence College.
Since his doctoral thesis was on investment protection and international law he has been active in the field of commercial arbitration since the mid 1990´s. Professor Bring has produced a number of evidence expert opinions in arbitration cases and in that context cooperated with Stockholm law firms, such as Mannheimer Swartling, Setterwalls, White & Case, Cederquist (all in Stockholm) and Hogan & Lovells in New York. In 2005 he was one of three arbitrators in Arbitration No. 126/2003 of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce between Petrobart Limited (Gibraltar) and the Kyrgyz Rebublic. The award was rendered in Stockholm on 29 March 2005.
Since 2008 he has been active in private practice giving expert advice to law firms in legal cases. His company is registered as Dalhem International Law AB.