M. (Marina) Fortuna, Dr

Expertise and Research Interests 

Dr. Marina Fortuna is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the University of Groningen. Her research aligns with Goal 16 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals of peace, justice and strong institutions. 

To this end, her research follows two main strands: 

(1) promoting transparency and impartiality in international courts by examining patterns of reasoning and interpretation both by and before the courts, and 

(2) analyzing how violence in contexts marked by power asymmetries, including domestic violence, institutional abuse in state care, and obstetric violence, is addressed by the UN and its treaty bodies.

As part of the first strand of her research, Dr Fortuna has studied interpretation of customary international law in international courts and authored, together with her colleagues, Prof Panos Merkouris, Dr Sotirios-Ioannis Lekkas and Dr Nina Mileva, ‘Draft Guiding Principles on the Interpretation of Rules of Customary International Law’. 

Her current research focuses on the use of evidence in international State-to-State litigation and within the purview of this research she examines how States invoke and deploy different forms of evidence to support their claims before courts such as the ICJ and the ECtHR. 

Anchored in the second strand of her research, she analyzes how international legal mechanisms, particularly within the UN and its treaty bodies, engage with violence rooted in power imbalances, including domestic, institutional, and obstetric violence. She has previously authored case notes for Oxford Reports on International Law on these topics.

Academic Journey 

Dr Fortuna holds a PhD degree in International Law from the University of Groningen, which she defended in 2023 and titled ‘Interpretation of Customary International Law in International Courts’. She has previously obtained an LLM (cum laude) in Public International Law at the University of Groningen and an LLB (cum laude) at the Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania).