Staff profile

Dr Yanwen Zhang is an Assistant Professor in Public International Law at Durham Law School and a Deputy Director of Durham Global Policy Institute. She completed her PhD and LLM (Dist.) at University College London. She is a public international lawyer with a particular interest in international economic law. She has published in leading academic journals on issues relating to the reform of international investment law and the functioning of international courts and tribunals, and has presented related scholarship at various major forums involving policymakers. 

Prior to joining Durham, Yanwen served in several research, teaching, and editorial roles alongside her PhD. These include Visiting Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Graduate Lecturer at University College London, and Assistant Editor of Journal of World Investment & Trade. She is currently a member of the steering committee of the Academic Forum on ISDS contributing to the work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group III on investor-State dispute settlement reform in Vienna and New York, and has provided research assistance at the United Nations International Law Commission in Geneva. 

• Public International Law
• International Economic Law
• International Investment Law
• International Dispute Settlement
• International Institutional Law
• International Human Rights Law

Journal Article

• The Assessment and Calculation of Damages in Treaty-based ISDS
  
  Bonnitcha, J., Alvarez-Zárate, J. M., Menkes, M., Ostřanský J., & Zhang, Y. (2026). The Assessment and Calculation of Damages in Treaty-based ISDS. Journal of World Investment and Trade. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1163/22119000-bja10106
• Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform in and by International Organisations
  
  Zhang, Y. (2026). Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform in and by International Organisations. Journal of World Investment and Trade, 27. https://doi.org/10.1163/22119000-bja10108
• Equitable representation on international benches and the appointment of tribunal members in investor–State dispute settlement: a historical perspective
  
  Zhang, Y. (2023). Equitable representation on international benches and the appointment of tribunal members in investor–State dispute settlement: a historical perspective. Journal of International Dispute Settlement, 14(4), 428-450. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnlids/idad021
• The Judicial Function of Investment Tribunals: Taking Foundational Assumptions Seriously
  
  Zhang, Y. (2022). The Judicial Function of Investment Tribunals: Taking Foundational Assumptions Seriously. Journal of International Economic Law, 25(1), 129-147. https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgac009

Report

• The Assessment and Calculation of Damages in Treaty-based ISDS
  
  Bonnitcha, J., Alvarez-Zárate, J. M., Menkes, M., Ostřanský, J., & Zhang, Y. (2025). The Assessment and Calculation of Damages in Treaty-based ISDS. UNCITRAL.