Nivedita S is a Research Fellow with the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). Her research explores international law and policy issues spanning energy, oceans, space, security, and the environment. Her work examines how international legal architectures structure power, inequality, and responsibility in the global energy transition, with a focus on critical minerals, extractive frontiers, nuclear applications (sea/space), and ocean and regional energy governance. Employing Law and Political Economy (LPE), Marxist theory, and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), she critiques green extractivism—legal regimes allocating risks unequally in Global North-South dynamics and shaping structural transformation in the Anthropocene. She also coordinates and co-produces the podcast series EnergyMatters@CIL and contributes to knowledge production and policy engagement in the fields of energy and nuclear governance. She is also an invited speaker and collaborator across Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America on just energy transitions and extractive governance.
Before joining CIL, she trained at the Office of Legal Affairs of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where she assisted with legal analysis and interpretation of international legal instruments and texts in the areas of nuclear safety, security, safeguards and liability, as well as research into international and treaty law issues. She has also worked on nuclear terrorism issues with the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crimes in the Terrorism Prevention Branch. She has worked with NGOs and other organisations on human rights, environment, international criminal law and gender issues.
She holds an Advanced Master of Law in Public International Law from Leiden University, The Netherlands and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours from the University of Birmingham, UK. She also holds a University Diploma (Diplôme d’Université – DU) in International Nuclear Law from the University of Montpellier, France. She is called to the Bar of England and Wales. She is an active member of the International Nuclear Law Association, the British American Security Information Council’s (BASIC) Emerging Voices Network and the Women in Nuclear Law Initiative (WiN Global). She is also a member of the Association of Law and Political Economy and the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia. She is a Friend of Jessup and frequently judges oral rounds and memorials for the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, as well as the IBA International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition and Telders International Law Moot Court Competition.