Professor PATRICIA VELLA DE FREMEAUX, PhD

University of Malta, Faculty of Law
Msida MSD 2080, Malta
Email: patricia.vella-de-fremeaux@um.edu.mt

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

  • 2003-2008 – PhD in International Maritime Law, IMO International Maritime Law Institute
  • 1999-2000 – Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), University of Oxford
  • 1997-1999 – Doctor of Laws (LLD), University of Malta
  • 1996-1997 – Diploma of Notary Public (NP), Grade A, University of Malta
  • 1993-1996 – BA in Legal and Humanistic Studies, Category I, University of Malta

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

  • 2015-present – Full-time Associate Professor, Department of International Law, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta
  • 2013-2015 – Full-time Senior Lecturer, Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Malta
  • 2009-2013 – Full-time Lecturer, Department of International Law, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta
  • 2008-present – Head, Department of International Law, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta
  • 2000-2008 – Full-time Assistant Lecturer, Department of International Law, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta
  • 1997-1998 – Articling, Ganado and Sammut Advocates, Archbishop Street, Valletta

SCHOLARSHIPS

  • 2012 – Elisabeth Mann-Borgese Fellowship on the Common Heritage of Mankind (IMO International Maritime Law Institute)
  • 2003-2008 – Scholarship for PhD research on a part-time basis from the University of Malta (Human Resources Committee)
  • 1999 – British Chevening Scholarship
  • 1996 – Colombos Scholarship (Awarded by the University of Malta for having placed first in Public International Law to further studies in International Law)

LECTURING

  • Responsible for the co-ordination of the teaching of all International Law (and related) study units run by the Faculty, under-graduate and post-graduate, within the Faculty and in other Departments e.g. Department of International Relations
  • Involved in the teaching of General International Law, Law of the Sea and Maritime Security including drug trafficking, maritime terrorism in various years of the law course, under-graduate and post-graduate

Topics lectured

  • International law (general) with reference to Maltese law where applicable; Law of the Sea; International Dispute Settlement; Human Element of Maritime Security; Contemporary Threats to Maritime Security (Drug trafficking, Maritime Terrorism, Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships)
  • Examiner on all above subjects
  • Supervisor / Examiner: BA Honours dissertations, Masters Dissertations and PhDs in International Law theses both within the Faculty and external to the Faculty, e.g. European Documentation and Research Centre, IMO International Maritime Law Institute

Guest Lectureship

  • University of Maine, Maritime Migration and Search and Rescue, March 2021
  • MEDAC: Co-teaching of topic with Prof. Em. Dr. Jürg M. Gabriel on the Legal Aspects of Search and Rescue at Sea (2012-2015)
  • IMO, International Maritime Law Institute (ongoing)
    • International Dispute Settlement
    • International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea
    • The International Centre on the Settlement of Investment Disputes
    • Maritime Security
    • Maritime Migrant Smuggling
    • Piracy and Armed Robbery
  • Oration, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, E. E. Mitropolous (Honoris Causa Conferment Ceremony, May 2009)
  • “The Malta Arbitration Act” course organized by the Malta Arbitration Centre in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Arbitration (UK) 2000
  • “Introduction to Arbitration” MITC Commonwealth Training Course

FELLOWSHIPS

  • Visiting Fellow, IMO International Maritime Law Institute
  • Fellow, Centre for European Legal Studies on Macro-Crime, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

OTHER ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

  • With SEA-EU Universities of Cádiz (Spain), Bretagne Occidentale in Brest (France), Kiel (Germany), Gdańsk (Poland), Split (Croatia)
  • Member of organizing committee for the establishment of a SEA-EU Masters on Port Management and Logistics (2022-present)
  • SEA-EU, participant in exercise on Virtual Mobility 2022
  • Member of the organizing committee of tripartite Summer Academy on Public International Law with Queen Mary University, London and IMO International Maritime Law Institute 2021-…
  • SEA-EU, Organization and lecturing in Intensive Course on Irregular Migration by Sea and the Human Element of Maritime Security (19-23rd April 2021)
  • With People for Change Foundation, successful bid re: Fundamental Rights Agency to be the Malta focal point for the FRANET Network (January 2019)
  • Member of the International Scientific Committee of the 1st International Shipmasters’ Congress, to be held from 25th to 27th September 2019, New Delhi, India, the chosen congress topic “Future Skills Requirements for a Digitized Maritime Industry
  • Setting up of the Malta Migration Scholars Network (joint collaboration between People for Change (PfC) and the Department of International Law), 2014,
    Ref: http://www.pfcmalta.org/malta-migration-scholars-network.html
  • Co-organization of preparatory work for the setting up of the International Master of Arts in Ocean Governance (2013)
  • Involvement in Malta European Studies Association (MESA) Project on Irregular Migration, under the leadership of Professor Peter Xuereb (work published in 2012)
  • Member of the Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarships (STEPS) Committee (2009-2013)
  • Drafted Report on Amendments to the Education Act together with Professor Charles Farrugia, then Pro-Rector, University of Malta (2003)
  • Organization of talk by then President of the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Luzius Wildhaber (2003)
  • Judge and/or Student Mentor of the preliminary and final rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (from 2001)
  • Domestic Arbitration: professional assistance to the Malta Arbitration Centre in various projects (1999-2001)

ACADEMIC REPRESENTATION, MEMBERSHIPS AND APPOINTMENTS

  • Extra-Curricular Committee, Quality Assurance Committee, University of Malta (UM) (2004-2005)
  • Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies Board, Administrator (UM) (2008-2018)
  • University Library Committee (UM) (2010-2015)
  • Human Rights Programme (UM) (2013-2017)

Current

  • Board Member, Faculty of Laws Board, University of Malta (UM)
  • Board Member, Law Faculty Doctoral Committee (UM)
  • Board member, Master of Advocacy Board of Studies (UM)
  • Board member, Master of Arts International Law Board of Studies (UM)
  • Board Member, Master of Arts in Ocean Governance (UM)
  • Board Member, Board of Studies, Master of Arts in Ocean Governance (UM)
  • Board Member, Award Classification Board, Master of Arts in Ocean Governance (UM)
  • Board Member, University Assessment Disciplinary Board (UM)
  • Law Faculty Representative, University Maritime Platform (UM)
  • Board Member, Centre for the Study and Practice of Conflict Resolution (UM)
  • Member, Periodic Programme Review (PPR) Committee for the MA Conflict Resolution Programme (UM)
  • UM Representative, SEA-EU Observatory for Migration and Human Rights led by the University de Bretagne and University of Western Brittany and University of Cadiz
  • SEA-EU, member of Education Sub-Committee
  • SEA-EU, LOCs UM Coordinator
  • SEA-EU MOOCs UM Coordinator
  • Co-adviser on Harassment and Bullying, University of Malta
  • Member of Organizing Committee for the Webinar Series on ‘Teaching of International Law’ (British Institute of International and Comparative law) 2019-2020
  • Member of organizing committee for the establishment of a joint masters in law programme on the prevention and suppression of international crime at sea. [With University of Ferrara].
  • Member of Expert Group for the Report ‘‘When Private Vessels Rescue Migrants and Refugees: A Mapping of Considerations”, British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the Mirpuri Foundation (2020)
  • Senior Consultant, People for Change Foundation
  • PhD Examiner, IMO, International Maritime Law Institute

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons by Sea, with F. G. Attard in Simone Borg; Patricia Mallia Vella de Fremeaux; Felicity G. Attard (eds.)
    Research Handbook on Ocean Governance Law (Edward Elgar Publishing forthcoming 2022).
  2. Views adopted by the Committee under article 5(4) of the Optional Protocol, concerning A.S., D.I., O.I., and G.D. V. Italy, Communication No. 3042/2017 (U.N. Hum. Rts. COMM.), 3042/2017 (U.N. Hum. Rts. COMM.), International Legal Materials, Volume 61, Issue 1, February 2022
  3. Rescue at Sea and the Establishment of Jurisdiction: New Direction from the Human Rights Committee? Opinio Juris, Part I (2021)
  4. Rescue at Sea and the Establishment of Jurisdiction: New Direction from the Human Rights Committee? Opinio Juris, Part II (2021)
  5. The Maltese Legal System, Constitutional and Human Rights Law (Malta University Press) Vol II Part B, 2021, co-authored with Professor David Attard and Professor Kevin Aquilina
  6. Vaughan Lowe, The Problems of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: Economic Sovereignty and the Search for a Solution, 1985, in J. Barrett and J. P. Gauci (eds.) British Contributions to International Law 1915-2015, Brill 2020, p. 1247
  7. Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Gender and the Law of the Sea, in Gender and the Law of the Sea, No. 88 in the Oceans and the Law of the Sea Series (Brill, Jan 2019)
  8. Dehumanising the Human Element of Maritime Migrant Smuggling: a discussion on the application of human rights in the maritime sphere, (co-written with Dr Felicity Attard), Benedict’s Maritime Bulletin, Vol. 17 No. 1, First Quarter 2019
  9. Quo Vadis? Some Reflections on Malta’s Migration Management Trajectory, in (co- written with Jean-Pierre Gauci and Christine M. Cassar) in M.C. Foblets and J.Y. Carlier (eds.) Law and Migration in a Changing World (Springer 2019)
  10. The Human Element: Stowaways, Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, in the IMLI Manual on International Maritime Law (OUP, Oxford, 2016) Vol. III
  11. Migrant and Refugee Law as Relates to the Maritime Regime, co-authored with F. Attard in Perspectives in a Changing Mediterranean – Essays in Honour of Dr. Joe Borg (Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies (MEDAC) Publications in Mediterranean IR and Diplomacy September 2016)
  12. The Cooperative Mechanism established by the Migrant Smuggling Protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, in Migration in the Mediterranean: Mechanisms of International Cooperation (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016)                                                                                                                                                                       

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