Team

Professor Irini Papanicolopulu (PhD, University of Milan) is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), where she teaches and conducts research on public international law and the law of the sea. She has previously held academic positions at the University of Glasgow (UK) and the University of Oxford (UK) and has worked as a lawyer for the Italian Ministry of the Environment and a multinational company. Prof. Papanicolopulu conducts research and has published widely in international law, including among others law of the sea, delimitation of maritime boundaries, environmental law, international humanitarian law, human rights law and the protection of cultural heritage. She has been invited to academic and research institutions around the world, including the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Germany), the International Maritime Law Institute (Malta), the Institute for Advanced Defence Studies (Italy), the Oxford International Law Course for Military Lawyers (UK), the Naval War College (US), and the San Remo International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Italy). She is the author of two monographs, including International Law and the Protection of People at Sea (OUP 2018), has edited several volumes, including Gender and the Law of the Sea (Brill 2019) and has authored numerous articles and book chapters. Her work spans different fields of public international law with a particular focus on law of the sea and oceans governance. Prof. Papanicolopulu has advised the Italian Ministry of foreign Affairs, other state entities and governmental and non-governmental organisations on issues of international law, law of the sea and the regulation of maritime activities. She currently acts as Convenor for the Law of the Sea interest group of the Italian Society of International Law (Società Italiana di Diritto Internazionale).

Steven Haines is Professor of Public International Law in the University of Greenwich. His research today is focused principally on Ocean Governance and the maintenance of safe and secure seas (although he continues to work in the fields of International Humanitarian Law and the law relating to international security). Prior to taking up his current post in Greenwich, he spent four years in Geneva, on the Management Board of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He also taught as adjunct faculty at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. From 2003 to 2008 he was at Royal Holloway, University of London, as founding Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations; he was appointed to a Chair in 2006. He has a strong record of pro bono work within international civil society organizations. In Geneva he worked with Geneva Call, the NGO that encourages compliance with International Humanitarian Law by armed non-state actors. Since 2011, he has acted as Legal and Military consultant to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, drafting International Guidelines on the Military Use of Schools in Conflict Zones (the core of the Safe Schools Declaration) that are now endorsed by almost 90 states globally. He joined Save the Children International’s Civil-Military Advisory Board in 2017, becoming its Chair in 2018. With a specialist legal interest in the Law of Armed Conflict Applicable at Sea, he was one of the peer reviewers for the International Committee of the Red Cross’s new Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention published in 2017. To Human Rights at Sea he brings not only his academic and civil society knowledge and experience but also over thirty years experience as a naval officer (from 1971 to 2003), He served at sea in a variety of surface warships, deploying to most of the world’s oceans as well as waters adjacent to the United Kingdom, and was involved in a range of maritime law enforcement roles, including as a British Sea Fisheries Officer. He also served for a total of eight years on the Naval and Central Policy Staffs in the Ministry of Defence, including on the Executive Board of the British Armed Forces’ strategic and doctrinal think-tank in Shrivenham (the JDCC, now the DCDC), having been the RN member of the MoD’s Strategic Development Study responsible for its establishment in 1999. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), was elected a Fellow of the Nautical Institute (FNI) in 1995 and a Member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Sanremo, Italy) in 2010. Most recently (2019), he was elected as President/Chair of the UK Group of the International Society for Military Law and the Laws of War.

Dr Sofia Galani (LLB, LLM, PhD, FHEA) is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol and sits at the Non-Executive Board of Advisors of Human Rights at Sea. Her research interests are on maritime security, the law of the sea, human rights and terrorism and she has published in these areas. She is the co-editor of Maritime Security and the Law of the Sea: Help or Hindrance? which is due to be published by Edward Elgar and is currently working on her first monograph entitled Hostages and Human Rights: Towards a Victim-Centred Approach? that will be published by Cambridge University Press. Sofia was one of the principal contributors to the UNODC Maritime Crime: A Manual for Criminal Justice Practitioners (2nd ed, 2019) and has led sessions at the UNODC Maritime Law Expert Conferences. She is the Editor of the Case and Commentary section of the European Human Rights Law Review. She has been overseeing the student research conducted in support of the ‘Flag State Project’ developed by Human Rights at Sea in collaboration with the Human Rights Implementation Centre of the University of Bristol.

Human Rights at Sea as an international concept and on-line platform was officially founded on 3 April 2014 by David Hammond a non-practising English Barrister, former military seafarer and retired Royal Marines’ Officer. He has practical maritime operator and legal-related experience, and he has variously served at sea in the North and South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean Arabian Gulf and South China Seas since he first joined the Royal Navy at 18 years old. He is an advocate for the on-going international development, advocacy and drive for the explicit codification of the concept of ‘Human Rights at Sea’ throughout the maritime environment. David’s international legal and advisory work has been recognised and used by the UK Government, the UN and European institutions. His work has been quoted by and he has presented in the European Parliament. He has published and co-authored numerous human rights publications and has been instructed in leading legal and advisory roles for European Union Missions around the world.

Elizabeth Mavropoulou holds an undergraduate degree in Law (LLB) from the University of Athens. and an LL.M in International Law from the University of Westminster. Presently, she is on the third year of her PhD writing on international refugee law.   She is a part-time visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster where she teaches public international law to third-year undergraduates. Beyond academia, Elizabeth has been with Human Right at Sea since 2014. Starting as an intern, she worked in various research projects of the charity in the field of human rights in the maritime space.  She is now the Charity’s Administration and Programme Manager, coordinating its activities and projects.  Elizabeth was granted a trusteeship with Human Rights at Sea in July 2019.  

Will has a broad and growing practice spanning all areas of Chambers’ work including: Shipping & Maritime (including fatal accidents at sea), Commercial Litigation, Shareholder Disputes, Insurance & Reinsurance, Banking & Finance, Arbitration, Aviation & Carriage by Road, Jurisdiction and, Conflict of Laws, Insolvency and Gaming law. He appears regularly as sole counsel in the County Court and High Court on a wide range of matters as well as in arbitrations under LMAA and ICC rules. He recently appeared in the High Court (as sole counsel, against leading counsel) for the defendant airline in relation to applications concerning an anonymous witness. He is also regularly instructed as a junior alongside other members of Chambers on complex matters. Will sits on the London Advisory Board of the national children’s charity Chicks. He has been a long-standing advocate for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community. Full chambers profile HERE