Dr. Felicity G. Attard has, for a number of years, specialised in international law including the law of the sea, maritime security law and human rights law.
At the University of Malta, she read law and ended her studies by successfully submitting her doctorate thesis which dealt with the contribution of the International Maritime Organization to international law regulating maritime security. She has obtained a Master of Laws with distinction from the IMO International Maritime Law Institute. Her research dissertation was entitled ‘Maritime Security under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea’. She also studied at Queen Mary University of London, where she was awarded a first-class Master’s degree for her research on smuggling of persons at sea. In 2019, she obtained a PhD for her research on the duty to render assistance at sea under international law.
Dr. Attard is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, where she teaches and coordinates courses in international law, the law of the sea and maritime security law. She has lectured at a number of universities and institutes including the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at the University of London, the International Ocean Institute, Harvard Law School and the IMO International Maritime Law Institute. Dr. Attard has presented papers on international law subjects at conferences held throughout the world (Brazil, Cyprus, Georgia, India, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States).
She is the author of the monograph ‘The Duty of the Shipmaster to Render Assistance at Sea under International Law’ published by Brill in its Queen Mary Studies in International Law series. She is continuously publishing research in journals and collected works.
Dr. Attard is the President of the Malta Branch of the International Law Association.