September 1996. The first day of the International Law of Armed Conflict course at the University of Essex. Professor Françoise Hampson was the name being talked about in the corridors in the brutalist building that housed the lecture theatre. One classmate told me that Françoise was the sole reason she came to Essex to do the LLM in International Human Rights Law. Another one whispered that she was so smart, that it was scary. I was curious. Who was this Professor Hampson and why was there an aura of nervous excitement even days before her class started?
A tall woman with deep blue eyes walked into the lecture theatre. Dressed in an old baggy hoody, a pair of jeans, and hiking boots covered in mud. Where had she just come from? But no, there was no time for wondering about any of these questions. As she walked into the classroom, she was already talking. She was talking about a case. Everyone was in a rush to take notes. I did not. I could not. I just sat there and listened. Time disappeared. After two hours hardly stopping to take a breath, she left. I could visually see the full structure of her lecture in my head. All the cases she talked about perfectly sat under headings, which had caveats and subheadings and the subheadings had further subheadings. I sat down and drew it. (I still have this drawing and have used it countless times over the last twenty odd years when to teach the differences between human rights law and the law of armed conflict). And I then understood that I just had encountered one of the sharpest, fastest and most precise minds of international law or, for that matter, any law or logical reasoning. From that day onwards, I considered myself one of the lucky ones; able to walk into her office, get lost in the endless piles of papers and let time disappear.
Françoise Jane Hampson died peacefully in her home in Colchester in the evening of Friday, 18 April 2025 following a long-term journey with cancer. She taught at the University of Essex from 1983 until her retirement. She was a towering figure of the Essex Human Rights Centre. She had an unmatched expertise in the international law of armed conflict, international human rights law and public international law. She shaped the interpretation and the application of the European Convention of Human Rights in the context of armed conflict. Her argumentation in Aksoy v. Turkey (ECtHR) is the first recognition of rape as torture in international law.
During her tenure as an independent expert member of the former UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from 1998-2007 and a member of the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi between 2017-2021, every topic Françoise addressed made a lasting mark, ranging from the interpretation of the prohibition of the death penalty under customary international law and the application of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Trearties to reservations to human rights treaties to accountability of members of UN peace support operations and human rights fact-finding in judicial and non-judicial investigations. These are just a few examples. Every question of law and fact she examined and litigated went through the ‘Françoise effect’. They became clearer, sharper and, subsequently, mainstream knowledge. If Françoise read these lines today, she would vehemently disagree with me. She would simply say these advances were obvious; anyone seeking clarity, rationality, consistency and integrity working with the law, would get there.
Françoise Hampson was the most modest genious I, and I am sure many others, have ever met.
She touched the justice struggles and lives of countless individuals as a teacher, scholar, legal advocate, mentor, and friend. She shaped every field of international law she worked with into its best form, and never gave up. And she did all of this making everyone around her believe that they could do it too. We all lost a big piece of ourselves with her death and we are also all the more richer because a giant with deep blue eyes walked into our lives and international law.
Françoise Jane Hampson’s funeral will take place on 22 May at 1.45 pm at Colchester Crematorium.
Those who wish to offer their condolences to her family can do so by emailing the University of Essex Human Rights Centre humanrightscentre {at} essex.ac(.)uk.
(Photo credit: UN Photo / Violaine Martin)