Academy Fellow

Natalie Klein’s research has advanced understanding of different facets of international law of the sea. Her work addresses highly contemporary maritime issues, which is relied upon by scholars and practitioners alike.

Klein has contributed original work on the complex dispute settlement regime in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. She has influenced how scholars assess the courts and tribunals resolving disputes under that treaty and her work has been cited by governments and in judgments in cases under this dispute settlement regime. Her 2005 monograph with Cambridge University Press is considered a leading treatise in the field, and her latest monograph on this topic, written with barrister Dr Kate Parlett, was recently published with Oxford University Press. Klein’s dispute settlement expertise extends to other areas of international law, including international environmental law, and led to invitations to contribute to esteemed Handbooks and the Max Planck Encyclopaedias. Klein is sought out for advice by governments and invited to deliver lectures and presentations for regional and international organisations relating to ongoing maritime disputes.

Klein’s scholarship in the law of the sea has also clarified how international law operates in response to diverse maritime security threats. She is a leading authority in relation to maritime security and international law, with Maritime Security and the Law of the Sea (OUP, 2011) relied upon by naval legal officers in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US, and has been translated into Chinese. She is frequently invited to lecture to government officials on this topic. Klein has served as a member of the Maritime Legal Experts group assembled by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime for the training and advising of maritime law enforcement officials. She brought together an eminent group of scholars in an ARC Discovery project to focus on international maritime security law and maritime autonomous (uncrewed) vehicles and has been invited to speak on this topic at venues such as the US Naval War College, and NATO Centre of Excellence conference. A recipient of a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship, Klein’s project addresses the use of informal lawmaking in maritime security and its implications for the existing international legal order. Both ARC projects reflect Klein’s engagement with cutting edge issues with policy relevance.

Widely published on legal dimensions of irregular migration by sea and increasingly recognised for work on human rights at sea, Klein has been invited to present evidence before committees of the UK House of Lords and House of Commons and discuss rights of individuals at sea during the Covid pandemic with government, media and community groups. She serves as Trustee of UK-based NGO, Human Rights at Sea and invited to event on this topic at Wilton Park, which supports British foreign policy work. Klein currently serves as co-rapporteur of a Committee established under the auspices of the International Law Association to examine international law concerned with the protection of people at sea.

Trustee, Human Rights at Sea

President, International Law Association (Australia)

1. Natalie Klein, Kate Purcell, Jack McNally, Submarines in International Law, (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, 2024)

2. Natalie Klein & Kate Parlett, Judging the Law of the Sea: Judicial Contributions to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Oxford University Press, 2022) 

3. Natalie Klein, “Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea: An Endeavor to Connect Law of the Sea and International Human Rights Law” (2022) Ocean Development and International Law https://doi.org/10.1080/00908320.2022.2112000

4. Natalie Klein (ed), Unconventional Lawmaking in the Law of the Sea (Oxford University Press, 2022).

5. Natalie Klein ‘Australia’s Maritime Security Challenges: Juggling International Law and Informal Agreements in an International Rules-Based Order’ (2022) 99 International Law Studies.