Patricia Galvão Teles
Member, United Nations International Law Commission
MS. PATRÍCIA GALVÃO TELES
Member of the United Nations International Law Commission
Professor of International Law
Autonomous University of Lisbon
Senior Legal Consultant at the Department of Legal Affairs
Patrícia Galvão Teles is currently Member of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC), Professor of International Law at the Autonomous University of Lisbon and Senior Legal Consultant on International Law at the Legal Department of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is also a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Professor Galvão Teles holds a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva (2002) and a Masters from the same Institute (1995),
having graduated in Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (1993).
Since 2002, she has been a Professor of International Law at the Law and International Relations Departments of the Autonomous University of Lisbon, responsible for several undergraduate and graduate courses on International Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and EU Law. At the Autonomous University of Lisbon, she is also a researcher at the Research Center on External Relations OBSERVARE and member of its Scientific Council. She is a member of the Editorial Board and referee of Janus.Net, ejournal of International Relations.
She has taught in several other Portuguese Universities, Military Institutes, the Diplomatic Academy and lectures frequently in Portugal and abroad. In 2013, Professor Galvão Teles was Director of Studies of the Public International Law Session of The Hague Academy of International Law and member of the Jury awarding the Diploma.
Between 2008 and 2015, she was Legal Adviser of the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union in Brussels, where she was responsible for overseeing the
implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon and other institutional and legal matters, including in relation to the European Court of Justice and the accession of the European
Union to the European Convention on Human Rights; and, among others, regarding the external relations of the European Union; Law of the Sea; relations between the EU and
the United Nations; Rule of Law; Fundamental and Human Rights.
From 2001 to 2008, she was Legal Consultant on International Law at the Legal Department of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has been a member of the
Portuguese Delegation to the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly; to the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court; to the Council of Europe Working Group on International Law (CAHDI); and to the Council of the European Union Working Groups on International Law (COJUR) and on the International Criminal Court (COJUR ICC), having chaired this last group during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union in the second semester of 2007. She also integrated the Portuguese Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights, between 1999 and 2002, and participated as observer in the United Nations led
Popular Consultation in East Timor in 1999.
In 2004, Professor Galvão Teles was a member of the Portuguese Delegation in the “Case concerning the Legality of the Use of Force” before the International Court of Justice, and in 1995 she assisted the Portuguese Delegation during the oral hearings in the “Case concerning East Timor” also before the International Court of Justice.
She has consulted for Portuguese Law Firms and International Organizations and was Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State for National Defense between 1995 and 1997.
She is member of the Portuguese Society of International Law (SPDI), the International Law Association (ILA), the American Society of International Law (ASIL), associate
member of IHLADI (Instituto Hispano-Luso Americano de Derecho Internacional) and member of the Committee for the Jean-Pictet Competition (Training and Simulations in
International Humanitarian Law).
Professor Galvão Teles has published in the field of Public International Law, namely regarding the work of the ILC, use of force, self-determination, sovereignty, interaction between treaty and customary law, international environmental law, state responsibility, obligations erga omnes, humanitarian intervention, human rights, United Nations, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, globalization and on the relationship between International and EU Law with regard to sanctions/restrictive measures. She was co-author of the translation into Portuguese of Ian Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law.