Bonavero Institute announces New Head of Programmes

The Bonavero Institute is delighted to announce that Professor Freya Baetens has been appointed as its new Head of Programmes. She is expected to take up her appointment later in 2022.  Professor Baetens will be Professor of Public International Law in the Law Faculty, and a governing body fellow at Mansfield College.  

Professor Baetens is a public international lawyer with a wide range of interests including international human rights law, the responsibility of states and international organisations, WTO and investment law, energy law and sustainable development. She is also a practitioner of public international law. As a Member of the Brussels Bar, she regularly acts as counsel or expert in international and European disputes before courts such as the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. 

Before coming to Oxford, Professor Baetens served as the Professor of Public International Law at the PluriCourts Centre of Excellence (Faculty of Law, Oslo University) where she worked on an interdisciplinary research project evaluating the legitimacy of international courts and tribunals. She is also affiliated with the Europa Institute (Faculty of Law, Leiden University).  She undertook her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge. 

Professor Kate O’Regan, the Director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, welcomed Professor Baetens’ appointment saying that: “Professor Baetens is widely recognized as a public international lawyer with a wide knowledge of both the substantive aspects of international law, including international human rights law, and also of its practice.  Her expertise blends well with the strategic goals of the Bonavero which are to build links between practice and scholarship in the broad fields of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and international law. We are looking forward to welcoming Professor Baetens as our incoming Head of Programmes and are confident that she will bring fresh insights and energy to our work.”

Helen Mountfield QC, principal of Mansfield College, also welcomed the announcement of Professor Baetens’ appointment, stating that she “was delighted to be welcoming Professor Baetens as a fellow of Mansfield”. 

Professor Baetens said that she “was delighted to be joining the Bonavero Institute, Mansfield College and the Law Faculty at Oxford! I'm looking forward to contributing to the Institute's mission of building bridges: contextualising human rights within international, European and domestic law as well as linking top level scholarship and teaching to the world of legal practice."