Profile
Kuel Maluil Jok trained first in Sudan. He took a degree in English Linguistics and Literature at Omdurman Ahlia University in Khartoum and a degree in Philosophy at St Paul Seminary in Juba, with diplomas in Philosophy and Translation, then studied International Law in Egypt.
In Finland he completed an MA in Sociology at the University of Joensuu and a PhD in Political Sociology and Culture at the University of Helsinki. He later took an LLM in Public Law at the Academy of European Public Law in Athens.
His doctoral work and first book examined the Nilotic peoples of the Upper Nile and the pressure placed on their customary institutions by Islamic fundamentalism in Sudan. His second book, built on a survey of 500 students at five Sudanese universities, analysed the conflict between Islamic nationalism and customary secularism over the shape of the Sudanese constitution.
Since South Sudan's independence his writing has turned to the legal questions facing the new state: how perpetrators of international crimes are to be held to account, how customary law meets international criminal law, how judicial independence is protected against executive power, and what international law requires of national institutions toward people punished under Sharia.
He practises law across East Africa, representing clients in cases of every kind and writing legal opinions, and teaches law, politics and linguistics at the University of Helsinki and the University of Juba, where he has been affiliated with the Centre for Peace and Development Studies. He has held senior administrative posts at two South Sudanese public universities.
