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Profile
Amiel Ian Valdez is a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore. Together with Professor Tony Anghie, Amiel is managing the programme called ‘Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia’ or TRILA. TRILA helps in capacitating Asian scholars to be highly skilled and knowledgeable in understanding and shaping a continuously changing international law environment.
Other than handling the TRILA project, Amiel concurrently serves as a Research Fellow at the Asian Society of International Law (AsianSIL), where he is also the Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Interest Group.
He serves in various editorial positions. He is an Associate Editor of the Asian Journal of International Law. He is an Editor of the AsianSIL Voices blog.
Amiel’s research interests and publications are focused on transboundary environmental impact assessment, precautionary principle in deep-sea mining, climate change litigation, environmental rights, ancestral seas, among others.
He has served and been invited to serve as a judge of the Jessup Moot competition for five (5) years: (2021-25) Philippine national and qualifying rounds in Manila); (2025) Indonesia national and qualifying rounds; and (2023-24) international rounds in Washington, DC, USA.
Prior to joining CIL, he was an Attorney at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines, where he performed works relating to the resolution of environmental disputes, policy and contract reviews, litigation, representing the Philippine government in a UN Environment session, and many others. He likewise taught Public International Law course at the De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines.
He is a member of the Philippine bar since 2012. He finished his Master of Environmental Law with First Class Honours in 2018 at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He earned his Juris Doctor degree in 2011 from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law. Before studying law, in 2007, he was conferred the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Magna Cum Laude, by the University of Santo Tomas.
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Research Interests
Public International Law,
International Environmental Law,
Climate Change Law -
Selected Publications
- Re-thinking Precautionary Principle and the Principle on Environmental Impact Assessment in the Context of Deep-Sea Mining: Some Preliminary Thoughts, AsianSIL Voices (Blog Post, 18 December 2024)
- Amiel Ian Valdez, ‘Defending the defenders: Upholding the Right to Effective Remedy of Environmental Defenders in the Philippines’, Ateneo Law Journal (published online in September 2022)
- Amiel Ian Valdez, ‘Balancing the Indigenous Peoples’ Sea Rights, and the State’s Obligation to Protect and Preserve Marine Environment: A Comparative Study of the Philippine and Australian Approaches’, Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 23, 1 (2022): 47-79
- Amiel Ian Valdez, ‘A Continuing Mandamus to Enforce Rights to Adequate Housing in the Era of Super Typhoons’, (2021) 24(1) Asia-Pacific Journal of Environmental Law, 120-144
- Amiel Ian Valdez, ‘Government Responsibility to Remediate Mercury-Contaminated Sites, a Philippine Perspective’, CIL Blog (Blog Post, 21 September 2020)
- Sharon Seah and Amiel Ian Valdez, Decoding the Paris Rulebook for Southeast Asia: Implementation and Its Challenges (Report, 2019) ISBN 978-981-14-4240-7
- Amiel Ian Valdez, ‘Beyond the Arbitral Ruling: A Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the South China Sea’ (2019) 9 Asian Journal of International Law 251
- Amiel Ian Valdez, ‘The Paradox of the Salvage Zone: Examining the Philippine Coastal Adaptation Framework in the Light of Tropical Cyclones and Threats of Sea Level Rise’ (Working Paper, Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, Law School, The University of Melbourne, June 2018)
Editorial works
- Indonesian Journal of International Law, Special Issue on TRILA, Volume 20, No. 1 (2022), 7 December 2022
- Indonesian Journal of International Law, Special Issue on TRILA, Volume 20, No. 2 (2023), February 2023
- Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Thailand, with a Special Section on Laos, Report (September 2023)
- Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Central Asia Report (January 2023)
- Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Philippines Report (June 2022)
- Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Vietnam Report (March 2022)
- Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Malaysia Report (March 2022)
- Blog Symposium on ‘Teaching and Researching International Law – Global Perspectives’, organised by NUS Centre for International Law and AfronomicsLaw (September – October 2020)
- Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Indonesia Report (March 2021)
- TRILA Project Report (May 2020)
- TRILA Newsletters (February – March 2020)
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Others
Other Projects
“The Asian Scholar” podcast (available on Spotify)
Events and Capacity-Building Initiatives organised
- Teaching International Environmental Law in Asia webinar series (14, 21, 28 February 2025)
- Asian Society of International Law, Intersessional Conference (in-person, Almaty, Kazakhstan) in collaboration with Narxoz University, and KIMEP University, School of Law (24-25 May 2024)
- Junior Scholar Workshop (online) in collaboration with the Asian Society of International Law, Narxoz University, and KIMEP University, School of Law (23 May 2024)
- Teaching the Law of Treaties in Asia webinar series (7, 14, 21 March 2024)
- Asian Society of International Law, 9th Biennial Conference (in-person, Bandung, Indonesia) in collaboration with Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Law, and Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani (8-9 August 2023
- Junior Scholar Workshop (in-person, Depok, Indonesia) in collaboration with the Asian Society of International Law, Universitas Indonesia Faculty of Law, and Universitas Achmad Yani (7 August 2023)
- Teaching and Researching International Human Rights Law in Asia (TRILA Human Rights) Webinar Series (2, 9, 16 March 2023)
- 2023 International Law Year in Review Conference (in-person) (10 January 2023)
- TRILA Thailand Workshop (online via Zoom) in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Law (3-4 March 2022)
- TRILA Central Asia Workshop (online via Zoom) in collaboration with KIMEP University Law School (21, 23, 25 February 2022)
- TRILA Philippines Conference (online via Zoom) in collaboration with the Philippine Association of Law Schools, and Philippine Society of International Law (1-3 July 2021)
- Foundation Course on the Basel Convention on Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (online via Zoom) in collaboration with Singapore’s National Environment Agency (21 April 2021)
- TRILA Viet Nam Workshop (online via Zoom) in collaboration with the International Law Faculty, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, and the Faculty of Economic Law, University of Economics and Law, Viet Nam National University (7-8 April 2021)
- TRILA Malaysia Workshop (online via Zoom) in collaboration with the Universiti Malaya Faculty of Law (3-5 March 2021)
- TRILA Indonesia Workshop (online via Zoom) in collaboration with the Indonesian Society of International Law Lecturers, with the support of the Universitas Indonesia Faculty of Law (1-3 July 2020)
- Decoding the Paris Rulebook for Southeast Asia Workshop (in-person) with the support of the then Ministry of Environment and Water Resources of Singapore, the National Climate Change Secretariat of Singapore, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand (1-2 October 2019)
- TRILA Myanmar (in-person) in collaboration with Department of Law of Taunggyi University (24-25 July 2019)
