Professor Anna Petrig holds the Chair of International and Public Law at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Prior to her current appointment, she served as a professor at the University of Zurich. She has been a visiting researcher and professor at numerous universities and research institutes, including serving as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at SOAS University of London in 2025.
Anna has been awarded a Ph.D. in the field of the Law of the Sea and International Human Rights Law from the University of Basel and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where she studied as a Fulbright scholar. She is a member of the Bar of the Canton of Berne (Switzerland) and of the New York State Bar (USA). Her broad legal experience includes work in private practice, the courts, and the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Her articles and book chapters cover a wide range of ocean-related topics, including armed conflict at sea. She has authored several monographs and textbooks in the area of Public International Law, the Law of the Sea, International Human Rights Law and Criminal law. She has presented her research at institutions across Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Anna has provided expert advice, oral evidence and legal counsel on maritime-related matters to the Swiss Government, the UK House of Lords, NGOs and international organisations, notably on the use of private security on board ships, the protection of underwater cultural heritage, arms trade at sea and human rights at sea.
She has been a member of the Swiss delegation and the Delegation of the Comité Maritime International (CMI) to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Anna was sitting as Judge ad hoc for Switzerland on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Cases 27 and 29. Since 2024, she has been one of the Swiss members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Anna is listed as one of the Swiss experts for the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights since 2023.
Anna currently acts as a board member of the Swiss Maritime Law Association and the Swiss Society for International Law; and is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Swiss branch of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War. Anna is Co-Rapporteur of the Committee on Protection of People at Sea of the International Law Association (ILA) and Chair of the EU-funded project BlueRights (Life, Liberty and Health: Ensuring Universal Protection of Human Rights at Sea, COST Action CA23103). Since 2025, she has been a member of the Drafting Committee working on the update of the 1994 San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflict at Sea.
