Dr. Maria A. Gwynn, MJur (Oxon) is a Senior Fellow at the International Law Institute. She is an international lawyer and an international arbitrator.

She is Member of the Implementation Committee of the UN Water Convention. She is in the Global Leadership Council of the Global Network of Women in Water Diplomacy, and is also an International Hydropower Association Fellow and member of the International Association for Water Law (AIDA) where she was Executive Council member as Chair of Water Partnerships and its representative before UN Water until January 2025. She is also an international arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) and a Senior Research Associate at the Global Economic Governance Programme, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

She held the office of Governing Council Member of the Binational Entity ITAIPU (2019-2023), appointed by decree of the President of Paraguay. She was Professor of the Strategic Studies Institute, dependant on the Ministry of Defence of Paraguay, and a member of the Paraguayan National Climate Change Commission. She was a delegate of the Republic of Paraguay and ITAIPU at the COP 26, COP 27, and multiple other international fora. She was selected for the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2022 and at the UN Water Conference 2023 was a keynote speaker for the dialogue on Water Cooperation. In 2024, she was in the Delegation for the Federal Republic of Germany for the High Level International Conference on International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development. In 2022, she was also a Member of the CAS Ad Hoc Division for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing. From 2016 to 2018, Dr Gwynn was an Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow: Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government and SCR Research Associate, University College, University of Oxford (2017-2018); and at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA (2016-2017). She was also a practicing lawyer at Berkemeyer, Attorneys and Counsellors.

Dr Gwynn holds a PhD magna cum laude, Magister Juris from the University of Oxford, and an LLB (Honours) from the National University of Asunción, as well as various postgraduate degrees, among them Directed Studies Diploma from the Hague Academy of International Law, and International Arbitration Diploma from the College of Law of England and Wales. She is the author of several books and articles in international journals.

Her areas of interest are international law, international relations, and international arbitration. She focuses on diverse areas such as shared natural resources (especially international water law); renewable energy and climate change; international treaties; the international investment framework; international dispute settlement mechanisms, international arbitration; and international sports law.

For more details, see her CV here.  

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/dr-maría-antonia-gwynn-1b6578b

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/maria.a.gwynn/

Twitter @MAGgwg

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List of Publications

Books

• (2019) "Adapting Watercourse Agreements to Developments in International Law: The Case of the Itaipu Treaty" (Abstract)
• (2016) “Power in the International Investment Framework” Palgrave Macmillan. UK. (Abstract)
• (2007) “Contratos Internacionales para el sector Privado” Editorial El Lector. Asuncion- Paraguay.
•  “Bilateral Investment Treaties of South American Countries and their Consequences at the International Level” Publication with Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, 2015.

Book Chapters

• (2024) “Settlement of Water-Related Disputes in International Law” In (eds) Russell Buchan Daniel Franchini Nicholas Tsagourias. The Changing Character of International Dispute Settlement: Challenges and Prospects. Cambridge University Press.
• (Forthcoming) "La Adaptación de Tratados sobre Usos de Ríos Internacionales - para Producción de Energía Hidroeléctrica - al Derecho International". In (eds) Miguel Carter. Itaipu. Causa Nacional. La Riqueza Energética Perdida del Paraguay. De Caras a la Revisión del 2023. Editorial Intercontinental, Paraguay.
• Gwynn, Maria A (2017) “Susan Strange: Trade as a Secondary Structure”. Book Chapter in German language. In: Handelspolitik und Welthandel in der Internationalen Politischen Okonomie (ed Holger Janusch). Springer VS. Read English version.

Articles

• Gwynn M. A. (2023) “International Law and Transboundary Dams: Lessons learned from the Binational Entity ITAIPU (Brazil and Paraguay)” 5 Frontiers in Climate, section Climate Law and Policy: 1-4.
• Gwynn, M.A. (2020) “The Uses of Common and Shared Natural Resources: A Tragedy or a Chance for Governance?” 3 Unweltrechtliche Beiträge aus Wissenschaft und Praxis 2020: 97–156
• Bedasso, B. and Gwynn, M.A. (2020) “How to share a river” Project Syndicate. September, 2020.
• Gwynn, M.A.(2020) “South America and the Living Principle of Reasonable and Equitable Uses of International Watercourses” Water Science Policy, Geography Department Oxford. December, 2020.
• Gwynn, Maria A. (2020) "El Derecho Internacional de Aguas, la Convención de Naciones Unidas sobre el Derecho sobre los Usos de Cursos de Agua Internacionales para Fines Distintos a la Navegación, y el Tratado de Itaipu" Revista Diplomática, Academia Diplomática y Consular “Carlos Antonio López”, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de la República del Paraguay, Año 9, Número 10.
• Gwynn, Maria A (2019) "Structural Power and International Regimes" Journal of Political Power, June 2019.
• Gwynn, Maria A (2018) “Balancing the State’s Right to Regulate with Foreign Investment Protection: A Perspective considering Investment Disputes of the South American Region” Groningen Journal of International Law, 1.
• Gwynn, Maria A (2017) “UNCITRAL and the Possibility of Returning to the Multilateral Regulation of Foreign Investments”, Vol.4 of the “Proceedings of the Congress of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law”.
• Gwynn, Maria A (2015) “South American Countries’ Bilateral Investment Treaties: A Structuralist Perspective” Journal of International Dispute Settlement, 97-117. 

Oxford Global Economic Governance Working Paper Preprints

• “Legal Developments in the Enforcement of International Environmental Commitments (GEG Working Paper 2018/138)
• Gwynn, Maria A. “Investment Disputes, Sovereignty Costs and the Strategies of States” (GEG Working Paper 2017/132)
• Gwynn, Maria A. “China and Brazil’s Infrastructure Initiatives and the Role of Regional Counterparts” (GEG Working Paper 2017/135)

Other contributions

• Public Consultation for the European Union on modalities for investment protection and Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic, Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), 2014.
• World Bank Publications, Doing Business. World Bank Publishing 2007, 2009, 2010.
• International Bar Association, Anti-Money Laundering Forum (Paraguay Chapter). Last updated. 27/05/2014

Contact

Institut für Völkerrecht
Adenauerallee 24-42
D-53113 Bonn
Tel: +49 (0) 15124504801
Email: maria.gwynn[AT]uni-bonn.de