Xuan W Tay

Xuan W. Tay clerked at the International Court of Justice as a Judicial Fellow to the President, H.E. Judge Joan E. Donoghue. Xuan is a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University Law Center (L.L.M. (Dean’s List with Distinction), 2021-2022) and Valedictorian at the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law (L.L.B. (Best Graduating Student, First Class Honors), 2015-2020). He is a recipient of, inter alia, the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal and the Chief Justice Prize. He has previously worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and ASEAN, and is currently a doctoral candidate on a research scholarship with Adelaide Law School.

Xuan W. Tay's thesis is broadly concerned with the relationship between the stories States tell themselves, and their international legal behavior. The social sciences recognize that States are motivated by their national narratives. These narratives are central in shaping how States make sense of their world and their place in it. Contrastingly, the role national narratives play in motivating international legal behavior is not well-studied in the international legal scholarship. This is peculiar, given that the practice of international law typically calls on lawyers to navigate the subjective narratives States perpetuate. Xuan's thesis seeks to fill this gap, while inviting international lawyers to reflexively consider the degree to which our practice is informed by the stories we tell ourselves.

Xuan W. Tay's academic interests lies in the intersection between international law and foreign policy. In particular, he is fascinated with matters of global security, these including hybrid warfare, Law of the Sea issues, space law, armed conflict, and influence operations. Xuan is also concerned with matters of race, feminism, and sexuality in the international law discipline. He is an avid fan of poetry, pretentious movie flicks, and all things by the beach.