Dr. Filip Reyntjens is Professor of African Law and Politics at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp. He is a full member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences and a board member of several scientific organizations, including the International Third World Legal Studies Association (New York) and the Development Research Institute IVO (Tilburg). Among other assignments, he has been a visiting professor in Paris, Pretoria, Butare (Rwanda), Kinshasa and Mbarara (Uganda) and the vice-rector of the University of Mbuji-Mayi (DRC). For over thirty years, he has specialised in the law and politics of Sub-Sahara Africa, and the Great Lakes Region in particular, on which he has published a several books and hundreds of scholarly articles. His latest book is The Great African War. Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996-2006 (Cambridge University Press 2009). He has acted as an expert witness on the law and politics of Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC in national courts in countries such as Belgium, France, Switzerland, Tanzania, the UK and the US, as well as before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. He has done consultancy work for several ministries of Foreign Affairs and Development Co-operation and for international NGOs.