I am a Fellow at Exeter College and Professor of Public International Law at the Blavatnik School of Government. I am Australian and British, with Filipino and New Zealand heritage, and have lived and worked in Japan, The Netherlands, France and the United States. I studied Japanese and Law as an undergraduate in Australia (BA(Asian Studies)(Hons)/LLB) and completed an LLM and doctorate JSD at Yale Law School, specialising in Public International Law. Before coming to Oxford, I held positions at King’s College London, Leiden University, and the United Nations. I have had visiting positions at Columbia University, the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the Vienna Diplomatic Academy and Université Paris Nanterre. I have extensive experience in international and national courts, with prior roles including Special Assistant and Legal Officer to Judge Rosalyn Higgins GBE QC during her Presidency of the International Court of Justice and legal adviser to the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. I am delighted to talk to students and alumni about potential careers and research projects in the field of international law.
Research
My research interests span all of Public International Law, including international dispute settlement, human rights, international organizations law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. My approach is to engage in comprehensive, often collaborative, research that informs and improves decision-making and contributes to better outcomes for the international community. My current research concerns how national and global justice systems can support flourishing societies and uphold fundamental rights.
My publications include Freedom of Speech in International Law (2024, chapters on insulting speech and false speech, Amal Clooney & Lord David Neuberger KC, eds). You can see a video of the book launch here.
I co-authored the book. The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (2021, with Amal Clooney). An event on ‘Waging Justice in an Age of Authoritarianism’ can be viewed here.
My other books include Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations (2017, with Dame Rosalyn Higgins GBE KC, D Akande, S Sivakumaran and J Sloan), The Law of State Immunity (2015, with Lady Fox KC), and International Judicial Integration and Fragmentation (2012, 2015).
My research has been funded by the British Academy, the Balzan Foundation, UNESCO, and the Nuffield Foundation and has been used by the United Nations to develop training for trial monitors around the world. My scholarship been cited by the leading national courts in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia and South Africa and has twice been awarded the top prize in international law publishing – the American Society of International Law’s Certificate of Merit.
I am a founding Board Member of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a member of the Public International Law Advisory Panel of the British Institute of International & Comparative Law, an advisor to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, a legal expert to the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), an advisor to the Tokyo International Law Seminar, and a member of a working group of the Committee of Legal Advisers on Public International Law of the Council of Europe. I have served on the Task Force on Accountability for Crimes Committed in Ukraine and the Governing Board of the European Society of International Law.
I speak to the media on issues of international law and co-host the EJIL: Talk! Podcast.
Photo of the COSIS team at the hearings on the Advisory Opinion on climate change and the law of the sea (Photo credit). Philippa Webb is third from left.
Selected Publications
Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (OUP 2021) (with Amal Clooney)
The Right to a Fair Trial under Article 14 of the ICCPR: Travaux Préparatoires (OUP 2021) (ed., with Amal Clooney)
Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations (OUP 2017) (with Dame Rosalyn Higgins GBE KC, Dapo Akande, Sandesh Sivakumaran, and James Sloan)
International Judicial Integration and Fragmentation (OUP 2015)
The Law of State Immunity (3rd rev edn, OUP 2015) (with Lady Hazel Fox KC)
The Genocide Convention: The Travaux Préparatoires (Martinus Nijhoff 2008) (with Hirad Abtahi)
Human Dignity and International Law (Brill 2020) (edited with Andrea Gattini and Rosana Garciandia)
‘Insulting Speech’ in Amal Clooney and David Neuberger (eds), Freedom of Speech in International Law (OUP, 2024) (with Dario Milo and Rosana Garciandia)
‘False Speech’ in Amal Clooney and David Neuberger (eds), Freedom of Speech in International Law (OUP, 2024) (with Marko Milanovic)
‘State Immunity’ in Malcolm Evans (ed), International Law (Oxford University Press 2024, and previously 2018)
Editor (with Rishi Gulati), Special Issue on the Legal Accountability of Transnational Organisations, King’s Law Journal (2023)
‘The UN’s work on racial discrimination: achievements and challenges’ (2023) Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 216 (with Rosana Garciandia)
‘The Persistent Relevance of the travaux préparatoires of the Genocide Convention’, in Reflections on International Law, Studies in Honour of Lindy Melman (Tim McCormack, ed.) (Brill, 2023)
‘The ICJ and other Courts and Tribunals: Integration and Fragmentation’ in Kate Parlett, Carlos Esposito and Callista Harris (eds), The Cambridge Companion to the International Court of Justice (CUP 2023)
‘Litigation before the International Court of Justice during the Pandemic’ (2021) Leiden Journal of International Law 1-14 (with Giulia Pinzauti)
‘The United Kingdom and the Chagos Archipelago Advisory Opinion: Engagement and Resistance’ (2021) 21 Melbourne Journal of International Law
‘Non-justiciability and Act of State in Commercial Matters: Exceptions to State Immunity: Section 3 of the State Immunity Act’ [2021] Journal of Business Law 192
‘“I demand justice. I hold them all responsible” Advancing the Enforcement of Anti-Slavery Legislation in Mauritania’ (2020) 5(1) Journal of Modern Slavery 1 (with Rosana Garciandia and Maeve Ryan)
‘Forum non conveniens: A comparative perspective’ in Thomas John, Rishi Gulati and Ben Kohler (eds), The Elgar Companion to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (Edward Elgar 2020), chapter 29
‘State Responsibility for Modern Slavery: Uncovering and Bridging the Gap’ (2019) 68(3) International & Comparative Law Quarterly 539 (with Rosana Garciandia)
