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Dr Gracia Marin Duran
Senior Lecturer in International Economic Law
Faculty of Laws
UCL SLASH
- Joined UCL
- 1st Sep 2017
Research summary
Gracia’s research interests lie generally in EU external relations law and WTO law, which are also the core areas of her teaching portfolio. More specifically, her research agenda has been nurtured by an interest in the ever growing and complex interface between international trade liberalisation and environmental protection. She has published widely on the use and promotion of environmental protection standards in the EU’s external economic policies, as well as on the balance between trade liberalisation and environmental protection objectives under WTO law.
Teaching summary
Current Teaching
Undergraduate
Public International Law (LAWS0027): Lecturer
Postgraduate
Law of the World Trade Organisation (LAWS0268): Convenor and lecturer
Law and Policy of International Trade and the Environment (LAWS0297): Convenor and lecturer
Foundations and Principles of International Law (LAWS0153): Lecturer
International and Global Environmental Law (LAWS0274): Co-convenor and lecturer
Law and Policy of Climate Change (LAWS0293): Lecturer
PhD Supervision
Gracia welcomes approaches for supervision of PhD candidates in the areas of EU external relations law, international economic law and international environmental law.
Biography
Gracia Marín Durán joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in September 2017 as a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in International Economic Law. Before coming to UCL, she was a Senior Lecturer and founding Director of the LLM Programme in International Economic Law at the University of Edinburgh School of Law (2011-2017). She holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), a MA in International Law and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University-SAIS (Washington D.C., USA), and a BA in European Studies from UCL (London, UK). Prior to joining academia, she gained practical experience in these fields, notably serving as trade officer at the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of South Africa (2009-2011) and working at the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organisation (2007).
Gracia has taught at several other universities, including the European University Institute (2014), the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (2015-2017) and the University of Oxford Faculty of Law (2019-2021). In 2014-2015, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Graduate Institute and at the World Trade Organisation, where she conducted research on the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. Gracia sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of International Economic Law (OUP) and of the European Foreign Affairs Review (Kluwer Law International). She is the Chair of the SIEL/JIEL/OUP Essay Prize Committee (since 2016) and is a member of the Academic Board advising and judging the John H. Jackson international moot court competition on WTO law (since 2014). She was also an elected member of the Executive Council of the Society of International Economic Law (2015-2021).
Gracia has extensive experience in providing legal consultancy and pro bono advice on trade and trade-related matters to international organisations, governmental institutions and non-governmental organisations. Indicatively, in 2008, she contributed to a study on the international regulatory framework and national laws on organic agriculture published by the Legal Office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); in 2012-2013, she was co-leader/co-investigator in a consultancy project for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on its standard-setting function and global impact; in 2017-2019, she was a member of the Panel of External Experts advising the Scottish Parliament on the trade-related implications of Brexit; and since October 2021 she serves on the Trade and Agriculture Commission advising the UK Government and Parliament on the impact of newly negotiated free trade agreements on UK animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards.