Skip to main content
School of Law

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. Since 2019 she has been elected  an Associate Member of the Institue de Droit International and 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 Professor Fitzmaurice's CV [PDF 455KB] 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 law of treaties is in constant motion, understood not only as locomotion, but also as motion through time and as change. Thus, kinesis and stasis, two sides of the same concept of 'motion', are the central themes of Treaties in Motion. The concept of motion adopted in this book is based on the philosophy of Aristotle. He identified six types of motion: creation (genesis), increase (auxesis), diminution (meiosis), alteration (alloiosis), destruction (phthora), and change of place (kata topon metabole), which has been amended by the authors to change in space-time (kata topon kai chronon metavole) to reflect our modern scientific understanding of time as a dimension through which motion and change occurs. 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. 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). During 2013-2015, she was involved (with Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas) in a multi stakeholder project funded by the EU Commission on environmental crime. Professor Fitzmaurice teaches undergraduate and LLM modules in international environmental law and the law of treaties. 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 served as an expert in her areas of expertise.

Research

Publications

Key Publications since 2000

For a full list of publications, please see View Professor Fitzmaurice's CV [PDF 455KB].

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


Related news

Back to top