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Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice, LLM PhD (Warsaw)

Malgosia

Professor of Public International Law

Email: m.fitzmaurice@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 3949
Room Number: Mile End

Profile

Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice holds a chair of public international law at the Department of Law, Queen Mary University of London. She is a full Member of the Institue de Droit International. The Institute of International Law (IIL) was founded on 8 September 1873 at the Ghent Town Hall in Belgium by eleven international lawyers of renown.  The Institute is a learned society and its purpose is to promote the progress of international law. In recognition of its action in favour of arbitration among States, a peaceful means of settling disputes, the Institute has received the Nobel Peace Prize. The membership is based on a personal achievement. In 2025, at the session of the IDI in Rabat the Resolution of which she was a co-Rapporteur (with Professor Bastid-Burdeau)  on Status and Functions of the Conferences or Meetings of the Parties to Multilateral Environmental Agreements was adopted. She also (with Madame Bastid) co-written Report on this subject.

In 2021 she was awarded the Doctorate Honoris Causa of the University of Neuchâtel. She specialises in international environmental law; the law of treaties; and indigenous peoples. She publishes widely on these subjects. View View Professor Fitzmaurice's CV [PDF 253KB] for a full list of publications.

In 2020, Professor Fitzmaurice has published (with Professor Panos Merkouris) a book Treaties in Motion: The Evolution of Treaties from Formation to Termination (Cambridge University Press, 2020). The concept of motion adopted in this book is based on the philosophy of Aristotle. Each chapter's analysis proceeds by focusing on a specific area of a treaty's 'life-cycle', where each type of motion shines through and is described through three different frames of reference: treaties, the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, and customary law. Her publications also include a monograph Whaling and International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2015 and (co-edited with Dai Tamada) Whaling in Antarctic: Significance and Implications of the ICJ Judgment, Brill/ Nijhoff, 2016.

She has delivered a lecture on the International Protection of the Environment at the The Hague Academy of International Law.  She was invited to deliver the General Course at the The Hague Academy of International Law in 2028. The Curatorium of the Academy invites prominent academics and practitioners from all over the world to give courses in English or French. The courses are delivered to a group of approximately three hundred selected students, young professionals, and academics from all over the world. Since 1923, all courses given at the academy are published in the Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law. The courses at the Academy consist of short, special (one week) presentations and the General Course which lasts throughout the whole session.

She participates in regional United Nations International Law Fellowships Programme, teaching the course on International Environmental Law. She is a part time Nippon Foundation Professor of Marine Environmental Protection at the International Maritime Law Institute of the International Maritime Organisation. Professor Fitzmaurice was invited as a Visiting Professor to and lectured at various universities, such Berkeley Law School; University of Kobe; Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I). She also supervises PhD students.

She is Editor in Chief of International Community Law Review journal and of the book series published by Brill/Nijhoff Queen Mary Studies in International Law.

She has also advised on the law of treaties and international environmental law and served as an expert in her areas of expertise. She was a part of the Republic of Marshall Islands for the Advisory Opinion on climate change before the International Court of Justice.

Research

Publications

Key Publications since 2000

For a full list of publications, please see View Professor Fitzmaurice's CV [PDF 253KB].

Books

  • Fitzmaurice, M., & Merkouris, P. (2020). Treaties in Motion: The Evolution of Treaties from Formation to Termination (Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108863407
  • The Interpretation and Application of the European Convention on Human Rights. Legal and practical Implications (co-edited with Panos Merkouris), Martinus NIjhoff Publishers, 2012, ISSN 1877-4822.
  • Legacies of the Permanent Court of Justice (co-edited with Christian Tams), Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (2013, ISSN 1877-4822).
  • Research Handbook on International Environmental Law (eds. Fitzmaurice/Ong/Merkouris), Edward Elgar, 2010, ISBN 978 1 84720 124  9
  • Treaty Interpretation and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 30 Years On (eds. Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Olufemi Elias and Panos Merkouris), Queen Mary Stud8es in International Law (Marinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2010), ISBN 1877-4822.      
  • Contemporary Issues in the International Environmental Law (single authored) Edward Elgar Publisher 2009, ISBN 98 1 84542 283 7  
  • Contemporary Issues in the Law of Treaties (co-authored with O.Elias) Eleven Publishing, 2005, ISBN 90-77596-06-2
  • Interrogating Treaties, Essays in the Contemporary Law of Treaties¸ (editor of the volume with Dr. M.Craven) Wolf Legal Publishers, 2005, 270 pages.
  • Watercourse Cooperation in Northern Europe. A Model for the Future (co-authored with O.Elias), TMC Asser Press -ISBN  90-6704-172-6 (2004).
  • Legal Issues of State Responsibility before the International Judicial Institutions (2004), (editor of the volume with Dr Danesh Sarooshi) Hart Publications,  ISBN  1-84113-389-2 ( June 2004)
  • Exploitation of Natural Resources in the 21st Century, (M.Fitzmaurice and M.Szuniewicz, eds), , ISBN 90-411-2063-7, Kluwer Law International (2003).
  • International Protection of the Environment, RCADI,  (2002), 480 pp.
  • The Right of the Child to a Clean Environment (edited with A Fijalkowski) (Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, 2000)

Articles

  • 'Droit international et gouvernance de l'environment' (co-authored with Virginie Barral) in: Annuaire français de relations internationales volume XXIV, Université Panthéon-Assas Centre Thucydide (2023) pp. 235-248.
  • 'Exceptional Circumstances and Treaty Commitments' in: The Oxford Guide to Treaties (Duncan B. Hollis, ed.) Oxford University Press, (2012) pp. 606-633.  
  • 'Indigenous Whaling and Environmental Protection'. German Yearbook of International Law vol. 55, (2012) 419-463.
  • 'Dynamic Intermigration of Treaties' part I, 21 The Hague Yearbook of International Law (2008-published 2009) pp. 101-153.

Supervision

Professor Fitzmaurice welcomes proposals for postgraduate supervision in the fields of international environmental law and the law of treaties.

Public Engagement

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