Originally from India (and now a British citizen), I initially arrived in the UK as a United World College scholar in 2003 and studied the International Baccalaureate at the United World College of the Atlantic (Wales). After graduating with an LL.B. (honours) degree from Durham Law School, I was awarded the UCLA Dean’s Tuition Fellowship Award scholarship and completed my LL.M. degree at UCLA School of Law (California) specialising in International and Comparative Law. I began my doctoral studies at the Faculty of Law at McGill University (Canada). I won the McGill Graduate Excellence Award Scholarship and McGill Graduate Dean’s Award Scholarship. I continued my Ph.D. at Durham Law School until December 2018, after attaining a Durham Law School teaching scholarship. While at Durham Law School, I worked as a part-time tutor for the courses UK Constitutional Law and Public International Law, and as a seminar leader/lecturer for the course Fundamentals of International Law (an LL.M. module).
My doctoral thesis is in the field of Public International Law. I am evaluating India’s intervention in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1971 and certain NATO states’ reinterpretation of the event before the International Court of Justice in 2000. Relying mainly on ideas associated with Third World Approaches to International Law ("TWAIL"), I am assessing the creation, development and historicisation of norms in international law, particularly customary international law and the right to a “humanitarian intervention”.
Apart from academia, I have worked in both Public and Private International Law. I have worked within the Office of the Prosecutor and with judges in the Appeals Chamber at various UN international criminal tribunals in The Hague. I have worked in international arbitration (mainly in the construction and oil and gas sectors) at a silver circle law firm in London, and have also previously worked in immigration law in the UK.
I have presented papers on humanitarian intervention, customary international law, refugee law and TWAIL at several international conferences including those held at the University of Ottawa (Canada), the McCoubrey Centre for International Law (University of Hull, UK), The Hague Institute for Global Justice (The Netherlands) and at the "Critical Legal Studies" colloquium at SOAS University (London, UK).
Other writing samples are available at my academia.edu website https://atpvp.academia.edu/MeghnaKumar and a more detailed resume is available at my LinkedIn account https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghna-kumar-206121186/.
Other than being passionate about legal academia, I love scuba diving, travelling, yoga, basketball, swimming, sunrises and live music.