Maisy Bentley

Maisy is currently completing the MPhil in law as a Rhodes Scholar. Her research focuses on women’s rights in the context of human rights climate change litigation. Maisy holds an MSt (Merit) (Oxford), LLB(Hons, first class) and BA (Victoria University of Wellington). She started her career at the UNHCR’s Pacific Regional Office (2022) and then at a top-tier New Zealand law firm (2023) and was a teaching fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2023-2024). She is an enrolled Barrister and Solicitor (New Zealand). At Oxford, she has led the Oxford Climate Society’s Climate in the Curriculum Programme, is a researcher assisting with the Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Governance and the Law, the co-deputy chair of Oxford Pro-Bono Publico, and a co-convenor of the Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group.

She has been published in the New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law, the New Zealand Public Interest Law Journal, the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review and the New Zealand Women's Law Journal. Her research on expedited lawmaking during Covid-19 was cited by the New Zealand Parliament's Regulations Review Committee in its inquiry into COVID-19 Secondary Legislation. 

She has received several academic, professional and personal accolades including Most Inspirational Young Person of the Year by the Pride Award Trust (2016), Outstanding Youth Champion by the New Zealand Youth Awards/Minister for Youth (2018),  Thomson Reuters Prize for Top Student in Contract Law (2019), Named Young Leader of the Year – World Federation of United Nations Associations (2021), Sir John McGrath Distinguished Prize in Public Law (2022),  Australia New Zealand Society of International Law internship award grant (2022), and the Rhodes Scholarship (2023).

Her interests are primarily in public law, public international law, human rights, feminist jurisprudence, indigenous rights and socio-legal research.