Dr Joshua Paine

Joshua (Josh) Paine is Associate Professor in International Law at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on international investment law and policy, international trade law, and international dispute settlement. Josh’s research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals (eg European Journal of International Law, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, Journal of International Economic Law, World Trade Review) and in edited volumes with leading publishers. His first book, The Functions of International Adjudication and International Environmental Litigation (Cambridge University Press, 2024), was awarded 2nd prize in the 2024 Society of Legal Scholars Brazier book prize for Outstanding Mid-Career Scholarship, an Honourable Mention in the 2025 Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law Book Prize, and received positive advance endorsements from eight eminent scholars.

For his article on ‘Control Mechanisms in Multilateral Investment Tribunals’ Josh was awarded the 2026 American Society of International Law Dispute Resolution Interest Group Prize for Best Article in International Dispute Resolution. For his research on a climate carve-out for investment treaties, Josh was awarded (with co-author Elizabeth Sheargold) the 2023 John H Jackson Prize of the Journal of International Economic Law. In 2017 Josh was the winner of the European Society of International Law Young Scholar Prize.

Josh has presented his research at major events involving policymakers, including twice at the OECD investment treaty conference and at the European Commission. He has given oral evidence to the Commons International Trade Committee and his written evidence has been cited extensively in reports of the International Trade Committee and the House of Lords International Agreements Committee. Josh is a member of the steering committee of the ISDS Academic Forum, a member of UNCTAD’s Multi-Stakeholder Platform on IIA Reform, and has been an observer in sessions of UNCITRAL Working Group III on ISDS reform. Josh is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Economic Law and was an Associate Editor of the Journal of World Investment & Trade from 2018–2023. Josh frequently serves as an invited peer reviewer for journals in his areas of expertise and has received JWIT’s Outstanding Reviewer Award.

Prior to coming to Bristol, Josh was a Senior Research Fellow (postdoc) at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law for three years. Josh holds a PhD in law from the University of Melbourne, an LLM in international law from University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the Australian National University. He has previously taught various law units at the Universities of Luxembourg, Melbourne, Canberra, and the Australian National University, and worked as a judge’s associate in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Josh is admitted as a lawyer in New South Wales, Australia. In 2014 Josh held a visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.