Victor Kattan


Victor Matthew Kattan is a British legal academic. He is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham. He previously held positions at the National University of Singapore and SOAS University of London.
Kattan has authored a monograph, five edited volumes, and over 30 journal articles. His law practice is based at Temple Garden Chambers. In 2017, Kattan won the inaugural Asian Journal of International Law Young Scholar Prize.

Early life and education

Kattan was born in Khartoum, Sudan to a Palestinian father William from Bethlehem and a British mother Josephine and grew up in Hertfordshire.
Kattan attended St Hugh's Preparatory School and St Edmund's College, Ware, completing his A Levels in 1998. He was a member of Mayne House at the former and Poynter House at the latter. Kattan graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from Brunel University London in 2001 and a Master of Laws from Leiden University in 2002. He later completed a PhD in International Law at SOAS University of London in 2012.

Career

Kattan began his career in 2003 working for BADIL, followed by Arab Media Watch in 2004 and then the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from 2006 to 2008. In his final year at the latter, he published his first edited book The Palestine Question in International Law. Kattan subsequently joined SOAS University of London as a Teaching Fellow. The following year in 2009, Kattan's monograph From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1891-1949 was published. The book makes the legal case for Palestinian self-determination and analyses the U.N. Partition Plan, Palestinians' objections, and the Nakba through the lens of international law.
After completing his PhD in 2012, Kattan served in as a legal adviser to the Palestinian Negotiations Support Project in Ramallah. He was a 2013–2015 Postdoctoral Fellow at the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law. He was then promoted to Associate Fellow there as well as Senior Research Fellow at the university's Middle East Institute. In 2017, Kattan won the inaugural Asian Journal of International Law Young Scholar Prize for his article "Decolonizing the International Court of Justice: The Experience of Judge Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan in the South West Africa Cases". He also became an Associate Member of Temple Garden Chambers. Kattan co-edited the 2019 book Violent Radical Movements in the Arab World: The Ideology and Politics of Non-State Actors with Peter Sluglett.
In 2020, Kattan joined the University of Nottingham's School of Law as Senior Research Fellow and then Associate Professor of International Law in 2023. Kattan co-edited two 2023 books: Making Endless War: The Vietnam and Arab-Israeli Conflicts in the History of International Law with Brian Cuddy and The Breakup of India and Palestine: The Causes and Legacies of Partition with Amit Ranjan.
In 2025, Kattan's recommendations regarding recognition of the state of Palestine and foreign aid were cited by the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee's Report. Currently, he is representing a group of Palestinian families who have legally petitioned the British government to issue an apology for "violence, exile or repression" experienced during the British mandate period.

Monographs

  • ''From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1891-1949''

Edited volumes

  • The Palestine Question in International Law
  • Violent Radical Movements in the Arab World: The Ideology and Politics of Non-State Actors, edited with Peter Sluglett
  • Making Endless War: The Vietnam and Arab-Israeli Conflicts in the History of International Law, co-edited with Brian Cuddy
  • The Breakup of India and Palestine: The Causes and Legacies of Partition, edited with Amit Ranjan

Chapters

Select academic articles