Our Team

Julian Aguon

Julian Aguon is the visionary behind Blue Ocean Law. An international human rights lawyer, Julian has worked for years to defend the right of self-determination of peoples across multiple Pacific Island Countries and Territories, including Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, French Polynesia, West Papua, Marshall Islands, and Papua New Guinea. He is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist and the author of the award-winning book, No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies. He is a Lecturer in Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa), where he teaches Pacific Islands Legal Systems. He serves on the global advisory board of Progressive International.

Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh

Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh is an international lawyer who specializes in human rights, climate change law and environmental justice. She has extensive experience advising and representing States, international organizations and non-governmental organizations on questions of international law in international processes, including at the international climate change negotiations. Her work on climate litigation spans cases across the Pacific, the Americas, Asia, Europe and before regional and international bodies, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and several United Nations human rights mechanisms. She is the author or editor of numerous leading academic publications, including her monograph State Responsibility, Climate Change and Human Rights under International Law and previously coordinated the environmental law programme at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu. Currently, she holds a position of Associate Professor of Law at the University of Amsterdam and serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Fiji.

Alofipo So’o alo Fleur Ramsay

Alofipo So’o alo Fleur Ramsay is an international indigenous and human rights lawyer and has extensive experience as an environmental and climate justice lawyer in Australia and across Oceania. Prior to joining Blue Ocean Law, Fleur was pivotal in decolonising environmental law organisations, having spearheaded the creation of two indigenous-led programs at a peak Australian mainstream environmental law firm. She was awarded the Winston Churchill Fellowship to undertake travel and research innovative lawyering and best practice Indigenous environmental law practice. Fleur has an excellent pedigree in law, having worked as a solicitor at one of the top law firms in Australia, and as a barrister at a prestigious chambers in Sydney, and as an associate to a judge at the Federal Court of Australia. She has been bestowed the chiefly orator titles of Alofipo from the Sale’aula village and So’o alo from Samauga village, both on the island of Savaii in Samoa. Fleur was recently appointed as a Visiting Professor of Practice at Birkbeck Law School, University of London. Fleur is also on the Steering Committee of the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty and a founder of the Pasifika International Lawyers network. 

Autumn Bordner

Autumn Bordner is a lawyer and researcher with expertise in the law of empire, self-determination and decolonization, and climate adaptation. She is the founder of the Allies for Micronesia Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on addressing the unique justice challenges of the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. Autumn was formerly a Research Fellow in Ocean Law and Policy at the U.C. Berkeley Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment; a Lecturer in International Relations at Stanford University; and a law clerk for a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. She has consulted for national and local governments of several Pacific Island nations, including the Marshall Islands and Palau, and has published on topics of nuclear justice, climate justice, and self-determination. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, where she studies climate justice in the colonial context. A scientist and statistician by training, Autumn has also worked and published in data science and in environmental health science. She holds a JD from Stanford Law School, a Master of Science from Stanford University, and a BA from Columbia University. 

Rohan Nanthakumar

Rohan Nanthakumar is a public and international lawyer specialising in human rights, climate, environmental and constitutional law. He helps local communities, governments, international organisations and NGOs to devise and implement legal strategies in pursuit of environmental justice and the self-determination of peoples. Rohan has worked on litigation before domestic and international courts, including the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the International Court of Justice. He has engaged with the UN human rights system and the complaints process under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. He is a Lecturer in Law and a Research Fellow in the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at the University of Melbourne. Prior to joining BOL, he was Special Counsel in the Pasifika Program at the Environmental Defenders Office, Counsel Assisting the Solicitor-General for the State of Victoria, and Associate (Judicial Clerk) to the Chief Justice of Australia, among other roles. Rohan holds a Master of Law (LLM) from the University of Cambridge, specialising in public international law; and a Bachelor of Economics and Laws (Hons) from the University of Tasmania. 

Watna Mori

Watna Mori is a Melanesian lawyer, rooted in her culture and kastom. She is a champion of the continuation of Indigenous ways of knowing and being and the development of pluralistic legal systems that give equal or higher recognition to Indigenous knowledge systems and customary laws. She has expertise on the emergent question of loss and damage for Indigenous peoples resulting from climate change. She has worked with the Papua New Guinea Constitutional and Law Reform Commission to regulate mine tailings disposal. She has also worked in the international humanitarian and refugee law space and has most recently worked at the intersection of human rights, indigenous rights and environmental law, at a large environmental law organization. In all her work, Watna strives to bring a new world into being, which can serve as a powerful alternative to colonial and capitalist constructs. She has an LLB and Bachelor of Arts from Murdoch University in Australia, and an LLM in Public International Law from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. 

Clement Yow Mulalap

Clement Yow Mulalap, hailing from the island of Wa’ab in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), is an international lawyer with a focus on international environmental law (particularly climate change law, biodiversity conservation law, and chemicals law), the law of the sea, human rights law, sustainable development law, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Clement is a longtime legal adviser for the Permanent Mission of the FSM to the United Nations in New York. For over a decade, he has represented the FSM in negotiations for major multilateral agreements and similar instruments and helped author numerous government submissions to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the International Law Commission. He was also the second Co-Chair for the inaugural cohort of the Facilitative Working Group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform, where he represented small island developing states. He is a member of the IUCN's World Commission on Environmental Law, focusing on the Specialist Groups on Oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs; Climate Change Law; Biodiversity Law; and Indigenous Peoples, Customary & Environmental Law and Human Rights. He received his JD from the William S. Richardson School of Law and his LL.M. in International Legal Studies from the New York University School of Law.

DAME MEG TAYLOR (Special Advisor)

Dame Meg Taylor is one of the most respected elders in Oceania. A native of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Dame Meg is a founding member of Pacific Elders' Voice (PEV), an independent body composed of former heads of state and other prominent leaders from the Pacific region. PEV provides independent policy advice to the region's many countries on issues of security, sustainability, and self-governance. Dame Meg was also the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), making her the first woman to serve in this prestigious role. PIF is an intergovernmental organization that aims to to foster cooperation between the Pacific Island nations, while also enhancing self-governance and security in the region through the provision of policy advice. Dame Meg has served the region in many other capacities as well, including as the Pacific Oceans Commissioner. Prior to these posts, Dame Meg served as PNG's Ambassador to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. She is also an experienced legal practitioner in PNG, having worked in the Office of the Public Solicitor, in the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission, and in private practice. Dame Meg has an LL.B. from Melbourne University and an LL.M. from Harvard University.