“…it is important to be competitive, but never combative. To remain proactive, but not permissive.” Nadine Belasker
Nadine Belasker is a Tunisian researcher and an independent consultant specializing in Public International Law, Comparative Business and Investment Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Nadine holds a research master’s degree in Common Law from the University of Carthage where she focused on issues of Sovereign Immunity and International Arbitration. She also holds a fundamental licence degree in Public Law from the same university. She attended the 2024 summer courses on Private International Law of the Hague Academy of International Law for which she received the Vreede scholarship of the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation by the curatorium of the Academy.
During law school, she served as a core-committee member of the Legal Education Advancement and Development Association – Tunisia since 2020, as an editor of the Mediterranean Journal of Legal Research and as a collaborator in the Laboratoire de Recherche en Droit International et Relations Euro-Maghreb. She interned and trained under multiple national and judicial authorities and institutions including the National Access to Information Authority.
Nadine Belasker joined the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court, the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Moot Court, the Saudi Centre for Commercial Arbitration Moot Court, and multiple other international and national competitions as a participant, a coach, an advisor and an arbitrator and achieved a complete winning track record in her participation in these competitions. In her first representation of the University of Carthage, her teams obtained highest national scores, were finalists and runner up for the Ron Brand Award, quarterfinalists and obtained numerous accolades including honorable mentions for best memorials for Claimant as well as honorable mentions for best memorials for Respondent, honorable mention for best oralist on procedures and distinguished student on the merits award. In the international rounds of the 65th Jessup, her team received the Best New Team Award. Former advisor of multiple winning teams of national competitions from different jurisdictions and teams that advanced to elimination rounds of international forums, she was selected as an advisor to African Asian teams during the preparation phase for the 2023 Vis Moot and continues to support multiple teams.
1. Every great journey begins with a spark. What ignited your passion for the legal profession, and what continues to make the practice of law a deeply fulfilling pursuit for you?
Nadine Belasker remembers that she spent enough time around the corridors of Tunis City of Science to find stories of Atlantis, Plato and then the history of Athenian philosophy, which all served long presentations for primary school. During her early adolescence, she witnessed the Tunisian jasmine revolution and subsequent Arab spring. An event that marked her environment and consciousness just as it marked the Tunisian collective memory. In high school, she was a literature and film enthusiast and opted for Arts cluster, which is composed of Arabic and French Civilization classes and underlying engaged studies. All these elements and issues led her in part to believe in cooperation, development and unity for the revendication of freedom, dignity and peace. By the time she had to make a choice following being amongst the top national 1% of the cluster, the selection of legal studies was only evident.
Nadine remembers that her very first university course session was constitutional law in acclaimed Amphi 14 during which the professor recited George Vedel’s definition of Law. He concluded that if the determination of Law in a society is difficult, it is inconceivable what a society would be without Law. Since then and through her time on campus and around the city, she knew that she did make the right decision.
2. The legal landscape is constantly evolving. In your opinion, what qualities define a truly exceptional lawyer in today’s world, and how can young professionals cultivate these attributes?
Nadine Belasker insists that she could not describe truly exceptional lawyers since attributes differ depending on people and circumstances. Although she is also convinced that her opinion will change as she evolves, the answer should be the capability to deliver and to manage the problem as requested and to the best of the capacities on deck. As such, exemplary attributes would be persistence, methodical commitment and attentiveness to all aspects of the situation at hand. These are also considered choices that a person undertakes. Then, the decision to pursue a career in law will certainly lead to the necessity of inter-disciplinary adaptability, agility as well as sharpness with regards to procedural requisites, attention to detail and understanding of the demands of society in a given time and on a broader global context.
In reality, these attributes ascribe to strategic decision making and risk management. They are cultivated by convenience or design through personal awareness and curation of personalized training.
3. True leaders are always thinking ahead. What is the next groundbreaking project or initiative that you are or would be working on and what impact do you hope it will make?
Accessibility of education has been the mission of Nadine Belasker during these last years throughout different media and she always hoped that she could foster environments to allow younger generations to unretract their right to education and their strife to advancement against barriers and unseen hurdles.
Nadine volunteered in LEAD Tunisia for this purpose throughout her time during law school. She is proud that LEAD conducted an unparalleled work in supporting graduate students through the pandemic restrictions in Tunisia as well as shaping the motivation and coordination of initiatives to bring together polyglot inter-disciplinary researchers from all national law schools of the 5 Tunisian districts.
Recently, she joined the development committee of the Africa in the Moot Association for the 2026 moot season. Although these competitions are hosted in law schools as extracurricular activities, they provide an unmatched learning platform in specialized legal issues, hand-on experience on written and oral advocacy and involvement in exuberant young societies of International Law enthusiasts. Since she wishes to direct her involvement in moot courts towards volunteerism under new capacities, she looks forward to supporting the participation of African teams in the Vis Moot competition and affiliated educational programmes.
Nadine also looks forward to further contributing to the educational infrastructure on a larger scale in the following years through both associative and institutional collaboration.
4. Which legal minds have profoundly influenced your journey, and what book has shaped or is shaping your thoughts and perspectives?
Nadine Belasker looks back to numerous legal minds who, in one way or another, affected her. She believes that this understanding and inspiration were not an external influence or admiration as much as they remain more properly the natural order of continuous comprehension and interpretation.
She recalls many of the kind people who took time to guide her and those who were diligent in teaching and supporting her. As for legal minds, for minds who shaped her perspective on the understanding of Law, there are two professors who were both of great objective and personal influence. Emeritus Pr. Slim Laghmani, associate member of the institute of international law, who was her professor of legal philosophy and for two courses of Public International Law. His contributions to the study of International Law and analysis are always of the greatest regard. Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg Pr. Ronald Brand of Pittsburgh Law, who held lectures on Private International Law marked with superb clarity on procedures and open conversation sessions across the Atlantic Ocean and through the pandemic were impactful as well. Their great patience, pertinence, background library and support for the dissemination of knowledge were testaments of how true jurists and teachers are ought to be.
Many other figures and legal minds resonate with Nadine Belasker such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Gisele Halimi. Their personal journeys, commitment and truism to themselves are lessons to always inspire younger generations. But, from Gisele Halimi to Gisele Pelicot, how should we construe a legal mind? It would not be right to only look back at those who were officially affiliated with the legal discipline and practice. The courage, patience and faith to seek the Law instead of crude adversity and the belief in the Rule of Law through what must be endured under silence, anonymity, forgetfulness, ignorance or exclusion is influential. These people, all people who still believe in the Rule of Law, are influential.
As for books, Nadine refers to Rilke’s letter to a young poet. She has been re-reading it for almost two years now and finds it to be the sort of classic complete oeuvre that always reveals new insights into newer situations. She also mentions that she has dear memories with the beggar by Najib Mahfouz. She finds it an eloquent encapsulation of the human condition and duties of memory and an instrumental book in shaping her thoughts during her late teen years and so forth.
Regarding legal texts, she tends to pick contributions from the collected courses of the Hague Academy. Although she admits that most of the time she does not read the courses in one formal sitting but browses through them just as she does now with Rilke’s letters, she takes them with utmost regard. Irrespective of the object of the course and the perspectives advanced, they are the acme of the brightest and greatest minds of the international legal community and a testament to their prescription to a dignified world and erudite commitment to knowledge and to peace.
5. For those who are just beginning, the path may seem daunting. What advice or guiding principles would you offer young legal professionals and advocates trying to find their place and purpose in the legal terrain?
Every person has choices and obligations to pursue a career in one domain and not the other. Consecrating one’s time in one field requires a pattern of irreversible decisions. It is a commitment. And commitments are always to be honored. Concerns or worries are but first stages that must be explored. Once any person takes the grounded objective decision to pursue an objective, they must not allow themselves to be ashamed nor intimated. It is the nature of things to always be in further need of learning. One must always seek to acquire knowledge and accept change.
She draws comparison with the outstanding training in the medical profession where a mistake or a lapse could be detrimental to all those involved. All trades and crafts must be treated with the same dedication and seriousness, even if the sense of urgency or priority differs.
Nadine adds that although constant theoretical and practical learning are necessary, consequent mastery remains a surface image that can break down easily in unfavorable circumstances. It is true that achieving such mastery is indeed a matter of constant theoretical and practical training. However, that is not definitive. Reviewing issues from different vantage points and on different media and comparable rhetorics is essential. It is often forgotten that the accumulation of years of practice and wisdom for a label does not indicate proven expertise if all that time was handled in strict monotony.
Nadine’s advice to find true place and purpose is to observe, see the truth and depth of things and go all the way. She reflects that it is important to be competitive, but never combative. To remain proactive, but not permissive. And above all, recognize the value of the minds and routes of those who shared similar paths, with us or before us, and appreciate the collective endeavors of the community to sustain prosperity.
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Editorial Team
Silver Obioha
Clinton Nyamongo
Kazeem Afolabi
Dikeledi Matlhagare
Tolulope Olasunkanmi
Sulaimon Badmus
Aya Hamdy
Princess Maake
Jemilat Akerele
Vera Enubianozor
Brandon Otieno
Oluwabusayo Awodele
Kyenpiya Wonang
Gift Nwoke
Jessica Odoh
Tracy Karumba
Mary-Jones Ossi
Halimah Oladunni
Mary Linus
Peter Momoh
Jessica Omoruyi
