
Scholar-elect Panpailin Jantarasombat's research will look at the lack of clarity in the law when it comes to States’ responsibility for safeguarding future generations
I was looking for a research topic that keeps me awake at night.
Panpailin Jantarasombat
Panpailin Jantarasombat [2025] has spent several years working for the Thai government, at the UN and more recently on trade negotiations and legal affairs. Last year she worked on an advisory opinion before the International Court of Justice. One of the questions before the Court was the obligation of States towards present and future generations when it comes to climate change.
“That stuck with me,” says Panpailin. “I have never done environmental law and I was really conservative at the start of the case , but towards the end when I was writing the oral submission I felt this was something that needed to be explored and that one case was not enough.”
Her PhD, which she begins in the autumn, will look at the lack of clarity in the law when it comes to States’ responsibility for safeguarding future generations. She says there is a lot of reference to future generations at the UN, but no-one is currently held legally accountable in international law . She will also look at what any change in the law to take account of this should look like and how that would best be achieved, seeking more case studies.
Childhood
Panpailin has grown up with a very international perspective which means she has always been curious about other countries and cultures and how they approach different challenges. Born in Bangkok, her family moved to the Hague when she was six months old. After the Netherlands, Panpailin moved back to Thailand then lived in Nigeria for four years before returning to Thailand again for two years. The family’s next move was to Pakistan for her first year of high school and then she came back to Thailand. She says: “From an early age I wanted to experience other cultures and as a child I never spent more than four years in one place.”
Panpailin describes herself as “very bookish” as a young child. It was only at high school that she started coming out of her shell. While she was an all-rounder academically, she was drawn towards the social sciences, particularly history and international relations, as well as to English. Having done the model UN at high school, she was looking forward to a career in international relations. Outside of lessons, she was on the varsity swimming team at school and also did swimming at university as well as table tennis.
When she finished school she was fairly set on doing an undergraduate degree in Law, but she didn’t hear that she had secured a scholarship from the Thai government to study in the UK until just before she was due to start. Dr Vilawan Mangklatanakul, who was a Thai Ambassador and a mentor, had been on the scholarship interview panel. She had attended Queen Mary, University of London and is now a member of the International Law Commission so it inspired Panpailin to apply . Another mentor and her first international law professor, Professor Phoebe Okowa, is now also a member of the Commission and Panpailin is keen to follow in both mentors’ footsteps in international law.
Law degree and return
Panpailin began her degree at the age of 17 in 2017 and completed it online during the Covid lockdown, after doing a dissertation on international human rights law. In addition to her participation in swimming and table tennis [she was women’s captain and Vice President of the team at university], she was also Chief Legal Officer of the well-established Thai Student Association in the UK and was involved in efforts to revise the charter and sort out sponsorship contracts, among other duties. She was also Pro Bono Society Human Rights Officer and had paid roles as a Student Ambassador and a Pathways to Law Ambassador at Queen Mary. Both Ambassador roles focus on promoting legal education and encouraging the study of law, with Pathways to Law specifically aimed at supporting students from underprivileged backgrounds.
A condition of her scholarship was that she work for a certain time in the Thai government when she finished her degree. Her first job was as an attaché in the diplomatic service. She received a crash course in international relations and Thai diplomacy and began working in the Department of International Organisations on issues that come up at the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in Vienna, such as cybercrime and strengthening criminal justice systems during the Covid pandemic.
She says that initially it was challenging to adapt to her first professional role in Thailand, given much of her experience growing up had been in other countries, but she found the work stimulating and says she enjoyed being at the cutting edge of the issues that were being debated. “I felt that I had a tiny impact on making a difference,” she says. She was there for a year before she took time out to continue her education.
Postgraduate studies
Panpailin went to Oxford University to do a master’s in Law before she joined the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs, where she is now. She mostly took modules in international law. Her current department provides advice on international law matters to the Thai government. A lot of that advice relates to the UN, but Panpailin is now working on Thailand’s free trade negotiations. She has gradually worked her way up from attaché to third secretary and is now second secretary.
After Oxford, Panpailin started working as a research assistant at the International Law Commission to Dr Vilawan. “It was a full circle moment,” she says.
She did this research role alongside her work for the Thai government and her then-Director-General, Dr Suphanvasa Chotikajan Tang, allowed her to fly to Geneva to attend some sessions.
She adds that she had always intended to return to her academic studies after Oxford, but there were several hurdles to overcome first, the prime one being that she had not settled on a research topic that excited her. “I was looking for something that keeps me awake at night,” she says. Another hurdle was funding. She had already had funding from the Thai government for both her undergraduate and master’s studies and had had to return to her government role afterwards.
The government has, however, allowed her to take leave from her role to do her PhD and several of her mentors, including Dr Vilawan, Dr Suphanvasa and Dr Sun Thathong [who also did his PhD in International Law at Cambridge], encouraged her to apply. Following the International Court of Justice case on climate change, her research topic became clear: how should international dispute settlement law deal with the issue of safeguarding future generations?
At Cambridge her supervisors will be Dr Rumiana Yotova and Professor Jorge Viñuales. Professor Viñuales was involved in the International Court case that ignited her passion so she is excited to begin her studies at Cambridge.