Ríán Derrig

Postdoctoral Fellow
WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute

Dr. Ríán Derrig is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute of the World Maritime University. His current research focuses on the history and theory of international law, and topics at the intersection of the law of territory and the law of the sea.

Before joining the WMU, Ríán was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Global Constitutionalism of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His research at the WZB focused on the influence of changing paradigms of psychological theory on twentieth century international law. Ríán defended his doctoral thesis, ‘Educating American Modernists: The Origins of the New Haven School’, at the European University Institute in September 2019. He was awarded the 2018 Young Scholar Prize of the European Society of International Law and the 2020 Antonio Cassese Prize for his work on the New Haven School. Ríán is currently writing a book, International Law and the Democratic Character: An Intellectual History of the New Haven School, which will be published by Oxford University Press.

In 2016, Ríán was a Visiting Researcher at Yale Law School. He has taught feminist legal theory at Trinity College Dublin and the European University Institute.

Ríán’s recent publications include: ‘Educating American Lawyers: The New Haven School’s Jurisprudence of Personal Character’, 31(3) European Journal of International Law (2020); and ‘Was Rockall Conquered? An Application of the Law of Territory to a Rockin the North Atlantic Ocean’, Vol. 14 Irish Yearbook of International Law(2019) [published July 2021].