He has been educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Trinity College Dublin; the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg. Prior to joining the faculty in Copenhagen, he has served for a decade as a legal expert for a large number of international organisations on administrative reform, public and constitutional law, and state-building. His research interests include general international law, comparative constitutional law, international relations theory, administrative law, and Islamic law.