Executive Board

Mary Chong (Vice President)

Mary is a State Counsel at the Attorney-General’s Chambers in Singapore, where she advises on all matters of public international law, with a focus on the law of the sea, international security law, international environmental law and international dispute settlement. She holds an LL.M. in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) from the Graduate Institute in Geneva and Geneva University (graduating top of her class) and a Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore. She was a fellow at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in 2018/19. She attended the ILS in 2017.

Verity Robson (President)

Verity is the Chief of Legal Services in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna. She was previously the Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva. Prior to that diplomatic posting, she served as an international law adviser in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Equalities Office, and as the Deputy Solicitor to the Al-Sweady Inquiry, a judicial investigation into alleged violations of international law by British armed forces in Iraq. Verity holds degrees from the University of St Andrews; SOAS, University of London; and the University of Edinburgh, where she was awarded most distinguished graduate in the School of Law. She has been admitted as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and in Scotland. She attended the ILS in 2017.

Moritz Rudolf (Vice President)

Moritz is an Associate of the Asia Division of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), where he focuses on the implications of the rise of the PRC for the international legal order. In 2020, he completed the Second German State Examination in Law as well as his Ph.D. in international law, entitled ‘The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative – political, historical and international legal aspects’. He was previously a fellow with the Berlin-based research group, ‘The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?’, and with the Mercator Institute for China Studies, focusing on China’s legal policy, geopolitical initiatives and foreign relations. He studied Law, Mandarin, and Economics at Heidelberg University, Humboldt University of Berlin, Tsinghua University, and at the Beijing Language and Culture University. He attended the ILS in 2017.

Vittorio Mainetti (Secretary)

Vittorio has been the coordinator of the ILS since 2006 and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Saint-Etienne and the University of Milan. He worked for several years at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies as a Teaching and Research Assistant, and at the University of Geneva where he was in charge of the interface between science and policy and the cooperation between academia and international organisations. He obtained a PhD in public international law from the Graduate Institute and the University of Milan: his doctoral dissertation was devoted to the study of cultural heritage law. He is the author of several publications.