Meet Dr Petra Minnerop, Associate Professor of International Law at Durham Law School.

Where did it all start?

I studied law at the University of Göttingen, in Germany. From the start, I was intrigued by public law and later, by public international law. I started working with a Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and professor at the University on constitutional law, as a student research assistant.

Studying can be a lonely experience, and this work helped me a lot in balancing long hours of reading in the library with project-based work. It helped being in a team with colleagues at different stages of their careers, from PhD students to those writing their “Habilitation”. This was an inspiring environment that laid the foundation for my interest in academic research. 

All my colleagues at that time were male, and there were only one or two female law professors. With a fellow female student, I took the lead role in the regional section for the German Women Lawyers Association. 

At the time, prominent women lawyers in leading positions were still few and far between, inviting some of them as “roles models” for talks about their careers demonstrated the sometimes difficult choices and sacrifices that these women had made along their career paths. For all of them, the hard work had paid off and that was very reassuring. 

These meetings, seminars and networking events were very important, and I think they still are crucial today in supporting women lawyers and students in their efforts to make a difference in the legal world. 

In the final months of my PhD studies, I moved to the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg as a senior research fellow for further studies and work. However, I returned to Göttingen once I had completed my PhD to kiss the iconic landmark of Göttingen – the “Gänseliesel” (a statue of a girl with a goose in the central marketplace). This is an old tradition (that originated at a time where PhD students were male), every student that completed a PhD at the University of Göttingen had to give her a kiss and flowers.

My passions

My passion for understanding and hopefully even changing the world around me for the better, be it only in small steps, drives my work. One of my areas of research is international environmental law, especially climate change. This is an area where humanity is working against the odds, both in terms of the human capacity to change behaviour and laws at scale, and in terms of the time that is available to prevent the most dangerous increase in global temperatures.  

Climate change brings inequalities and inequities to the surface, and I believe that there is a strong “Global North” responsibility to support those who are impacted the most yet have contributed so little to the dangers they face.  

Establishing the International Research Advisory Board 

During the first “lockdown” in 2020, I was reading country reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and I realised how often these reports pointed towards the need for more capacity-building work.

There are many providers of support and capacity-building efforts already in place, and they are doing great work. The approach of the International Research Advisory Board (IRAB) is slightly different. IRAB is a network of colleagues from different disciplines with the aim of providing long-term capacity-building through research. We are working with academic and non-academic partners in different countries and provide support through joint research projects. Currently, we are working with the Energy Transition Council (ETC) that was established by the COP26 UK Presidency.

My advice for others 

There is an unlimited and often unleashed potential for reform and innovation that women can facilitate, especially when supporting each other and working in solidarity. I think that we must decide every day to grow solidarity among women.

Find out more

Read  to learn more about her research interests and publications.

 is a world leader in legal education and research. Our award-winning academic staff produce ground-breaking research with impact, and we are active in public engagement both nationally and internationally.