皇家华人

Professor Martins Paparinskis (UCL Laws) used UCL Global Engagement Funds to support his work with the International Law Commission, with the help of UCL PhD students.

The International Law Commission (ILC) is the United Nations expert body in international law. The ILC鈥檚 purpose is to study topics of international legal relevance, and contribute to progressive development of international law and its codification. Members are elected every five years to the ILC, which works closely with the General Assembly. The Commission makes important contributions to various aspects of public international law, ranging from diplomatic and consular law to the law of the sea and freshwater law.

In 2021, Professor Martins Paparinskis was elected as one of 34 members of the ILC, and his five year term began on 1 January 2023. He spends up to 11 weeks in Geneva each year, working on a wide range of topics that relate to international law. In order to maximise his input to the ILC, he applied for UCL Global Engagement Funds to hire two UCL Laws PhD students to support his work for the 2023 ILC sessions.

Challenging international topics

鈥淭here are lots of open substantive topics being discussed during the in-person sessions of the ILC,鈥� Martins said. 鈥淚t is wide ranging, very demanding, and necessitates intensive research on a variety of topics. I thought that it would be very valuable for PhD students to experience the ILC and to see how international law is made.鈥澛�

As such, Martins came up with the idea to apply for funds to enable two PhD students to support his work during the ILC in-person sessions. He was successfully awarded UCL Global Engagement Funds to cover the expenses of two PhD students, Gal Cohen and Yanwen Zhang, to travel with him to Geneva, and for them to provide research assistance during the spring and summer of 2023.

The topics they worked on during this time had both legal and political relevance. One of these was about rising sea levels and the regulation of maritime boundaries. 鈥淚nternational law essentially says, to simplify it somewhat, that land dominates the sea,鈥� Martins explained. 鈥淲e first determine which state is entitled to which piece of land, draw baselines around that territory, and then we draw concentric circles projecting outside from these baselines. We say that you have certain rights. Within 12 miles you have territorial rights, and within 200 miles you can fish or drill oil, and so on. But if the sea level rises, the land correspondingly diminishes. The question is whether, in legal terms, these maritime entitlements are also moving landward.鈥�

The two research assistants conducted extensive research on these subjects and more. In particular, they reviewed draft papers, generated research plans, gathered evidence from documentary sources, identified potential responses and solutions, and helped with plenary statements and translations. As Martins was also the chairperson of the drafting committee during 2023, these PhD assistants also helped with that work.聽

Benefits for both parties

This collaboration was beneficial for both Martins and the research assistants. 鈥淚 benefitted from the high quality of research assistance that was brought by the PhD students,鈥� Martins said. 鈥淚t helped to enable quality engagement on key research topics at a global level.鈥�

From the perspective of the PhD students who provided research assistance, it was a good opportunity to gain exposure to the complex conversations around international law. 鈥淚t was an enriching and rewarding experience assisting Professor Paparinskis with the UCL Global Engagement-funded project in the UN ILC,鈥� Yanwen said. 鈥淭he unique opportunity to engage with a wide range of topics addressed by the ILC has broadened my horizons. It has enabled me to develop a generalist public international law perspective, which is particularly beneficial for my doctoral research. With a deeper understanding of the law-making processes in UN institutions, I have also gained invaluable insights into the real-world impact of legal research that confronts changes faced by international society.鈥�

Gal Cohen said: 鈥淭hanks to the remarkable efforts of all those involved, I was able to participate in the 2023 ILC sessions twice, in May and July 2023. Such participation enabled me to get closely acquainted with the work of the ILC, including the processes for the adoption of reports, draft articles and draft conclusions. The meetings in July 2023 focused on the adoption of the findings of the ILC in the first part of the session. Since the meetings were mainly plenary meetings, the content presented me with another interesting perspective to the way international law is being created and promoted. This has been a lot of fun and it could also contribute to the PhD process in the future, in particular the conversations I had with Professor Dapo Akande, who wrote in the past on topics that are very closely linked to mine.鈥�

Links

• Find out more about funding opportunities offered by UCL Global Engagement