Freya Baetens

Professor of Public International Law; Research Director, Oxford Human Rights Hub

Biography

Freya Baetens is Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, Research Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub (OxHRH), GIC+ Project Director at Regent's Park College and Senior Associate at Pembroke College. She is also affiliated with the LEVEL Project (Faculty of Law, Oslo University) and the Europa Institute (Faculty of Law, Leiden University). She has been a visiting professor at the KU Leuven (Belgium), Max Planck Institute for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law (Luxembourg), Université Paris Nanterre (France), National University Singapore (Singapore), Sydney Law School (Australia), Xi’An Jiaotong Law School (China), FHR Lim A Po Institute (Suriname) and the World Trade Institute, Bern University (Switzerland). In 2024, she was awarded the inter-university Francqui Chair (Belgium). She currently serves as the Vice-President and Treasurer of the European Society of International Law (ESIL).

As a Member of the Brussels Bar, she regularly acts as counsel or expert before international tribunals (including inter-State and investor-State arbitration) and courts such as the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the African Court on Human and People's Rights, the World Trade Organisation and the European Court of Justice. She is listed on the EU Roster of Arbitrators and Trade & Sustainable Development (TSD) experts, the Panel of Arbitrators and Conciliators of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the South China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration) and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC).

She undertook her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius College), after obtaining LLB and LLM (equiv.) degrees from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and an LLM degree from the University of Columbia (USA). At Oxford, she received an MA in Law (by Resolution) and a DPhil in Law (by Incorporation).

Publications

Research Interests

 

Fields of interest

  • Public international law (incl. international responsibility; treaty law; international legal personality; privileges and immunities)
  • International dispute settlement
  • International and regional human rights law
  • International institutional law
  • International economic law (trade and investment)
  • Law of the sea
  • Law of natural resources (incl. energy law)
  • Sustainable development law

Current research in progress

  • State consent to international jurisdiction: conferral, modification and termination of consent
  • Particular vs. regional customary international law
  • State-owned enterprises in international law
  • Collective vs. individual rights in human rights law
  • Alternative dispute resolution: particular focus on the African Court of Human and People’s Rights