Malavika Rao is a Postdoctoral Researcher at CEENRG, Department of Land Economy, and a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. She is a recipient of the Post-doc Mobility Fellowship (2024-2027) for the project ‘The International Legal Infrastructure Underpinning Food Flows and Distribution’ (SNSF grants: 217768 and 242392) awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Malavika holds a PhD in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute (2024), an LLM in Environmental Law and in Energy and Clean Technology Law from the University of California, Berkeley (2017), and a BA.LLB(Hons.) from Christ University, India (2016). Malavika has experience in legal practice as a Utility Justice Legal Fellow at The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in San Francisco (2017-2018).
Malavika’s areas of research are international migration law, socio-economic rights, environmental law and climate change, and global health law. Her PhD thesis was awarded the 2025 Ladislas Mysyrowicz Prize and explores the application of the principle of non-refoulement in international law to people fleeing food deprivation. She is working on her book with Cambridge University Press (forthcoming 2027). Malavika is a NextGen Humanitarian Scholar for the CHH-Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict and Forced Displacement and contributed to the Lancet Report ‘Health in a World of Crises and Impunity’ (2026).
Her broad research agenda examines the rights bearing on the survival of people in times of global emergencies — displacement, conflict, climate change and health crises.
PUBLICATIONS
Book Chapter
Climate Displacement in the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion: Recognized but not Resolved. (2026) In Jannika Jahn, Moritz Vinken, Khaled El Mahmoud (eds.), The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: At the Forefront of the Structural Transformation of International Law — A Collection of Essays. Schwarze Reihe, Nomos, Baden-Baden. (Link)
Journal Articles
International Protection, Disasters and Climate Change. (2024) International Journal of Refugee Law, Oxford University Press, 1(2), pp. 176–197. David Cantor, Bruce Burson, Brian Aycock, Nikolas Feith Tan, Thekli Anastasiou, Emily Arnold-Fernandez, Carla Field, Cleo Hansen-Lohrey, Walter Kälin, Gillian Kane, Steve Miron, Malavika Rao, Beatriz Sánchez Mojica, Chiara Scissa, Sanjula Weerasinghe and Tamara Wood. (Link)
A TWAIL Perspective on Loss and Damage from Climate Change: Reflections from Indira Gandhi’s Speech at Stockholm. (2022) Asian Journal of International Law, Cambridge University Press, 12(1), pp. 63–81. (Link) (Cited in the UN Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, E. Tendayi Achiume: A/77/549 Ecological crisis, climate justice and racial justice.)
Should Internal Migrants Who Cannot Return Home Due To COVID-19 be Treated as Disaster IDPs? Lessons from India. (2020) Refugee Survey Quarterly (Special Issue on Internal Displacement), Oxford University Press, 39(4), pp. 609–619. (Link)
Reports
Health in a World of Crises and Impunity. (2026) Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health—Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict, and Forced Displacement. The Lancet. Published Online May 19, 2026. (Link) Paul Spiegel, Esperanza Martinez, Orit Abrahim, Ozge Karadag, Chi-chi Undie, Chiara Altare, Benjamin Schmid, Aula Abbara, Awsan Bahattab, Letza Bojorquez, David Cantor, Rosemary Jouhaud, Kemish Kenneth, Daniel Maxwell, Andres Moya, Eray Ontas, Sabina Rashid, Hugo Slim, Malavika Rao, Arwa Abdelhay, Huda Basaleem, Ghislain Bisimwa, Fouad Fouad, Joanne Liu, Nicolas Meda, Sara Pantuliano, Muhammad Zaman, Munzer Alkhalil, Kate Falb, Kerrie Holloway, Ishrat Jahan, Thaenpaavai Kannan, Helen Lindsay, Pacifique Lyabayungu, Farzana Misha, Iwona Bielska, Emmily Modi, Stella Muthuri, Moumini Niaone, Ibrahim Bou Orm, Cesar Rodriguez, Alina Sadaf, Altaf Saadia, Camila Polinori-Castro, Caroline Franck, Jonathon Polonsky, Vinay Kampalath, Marina Randriambelonoro, and Karl Blanchet.
Blogs
Climate Displacement in the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion: Recognized but not Resolved. (2025) Völkerrechtsblog. Symposium: Systemic Impacts and Structural Shifts: Climate Change and the Role of the ICJ Advisory Opinion. (Link)
Critical Minerals, Environmental Harm and the Unspoken Rights of Nature: The Kafue River Spill in Zambia. (2025) EJIL:Talk! (Link)
Research Visits
University of the South Pacific, Emalus Campus, Vanuatu (2025)
Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne (2024)
Teaching Experience
University of Cambridge — Workshops and supervisions for the Faculty of Law, Department of Land Economy, and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (2024–present)
The Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) — Teaching assistant, Master in International Law (MIL) — multiple courses in public international law, including climate change and international law, migration law, global health law, and global south and international law (2019–2021)