Jacqueline Joyce F. Espenilla
Jacqueline F. Espenilla is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines (U.P.) College of Law. She concurrently serves a Senior Research Fellow at the U.P. Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea. Her research and teaching focuses on public international law, law of the sea, maritime security, and international environmental law.
She is the current Chairperson of the Environmental Law Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy as well as a law and policy consultant for the United Nations Development Program in the Philippines. She regularly serves as a government resource person on maritime issues, and was the Legal Adviser of the Philippine Delegation to the BBNJ Treaty negotiations. Assoc. Prof. Espenilla was also nominated by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UN DOALOS) to join the Expert Panel at the 25th Meeting of the United Nations Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and Law of the Sea.
Prior to her current appointments, she served as a Senior Attorney at the Philippine Department of Justice under the Office of the Secretary, and a Legal Research Consultant at the Asian Development Bank Office of the General Counsel, where she worked on regional environmental governance issues.
Assoc. Prof. Espenilla completed resident research fellowships at the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea in New York, Columbia Law School, and at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law. She received her Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, and her J.D. and B.A. from the University of the Philippines. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation at Utrecht University School of Law where she is a PhD Candidate at its Faculty of Law, Economics, and Governance.