Alexia Solomou holds a wealth of public international law experience, spanning 15 years of practice in a multiplicity of international organisations, law firms, and academic institutions. Alexia’s areas of expertise are international litigation and arbitration, international refugee law, international human rights, land and maritime delimitation, environmental law, statehood, state responsibility, transitional justice, peace agreements, and the use of force in international law. Alexia’s practice also focuses on international law aspects of EU-funded projects, including firearms trafficking, human trafficking and the international regulation of technological advancements, such as the use of AI and cybersecurity.
Alexia holds an LLB with French Law with First Class Honours from University College London and Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, where she was admitted to the Dean’s List for graduating in the top 5% of her class. She then obtained an LLM in public international Law from Columbia University with a Fulbright Scholarship, where she graduated with an (A) and became a James Kent Scholar for graduating in the top 2% of her class. While at Columbia, Alexia was the one student among the entirety of the Law School’s 2010 cohort who was awarded a Fellowship to undertake a clerkship at the International Court of Justice.
Alexia started out her legal practice in 2010 by serving as a judicial law clerk to two Judges, including the President, of the International Court of Justice, whereby she conducted public international law research on a series of issues arising from the Court’s case-law. Alexia then undertook the public international law course at The Hague Academy for International Law on a scholarship awarded by Professor Symeon Symeonides. Alexia was one of the three laureates among 300 students to be awarded the prestigious Diploma in public international law in the summer of 2011. Alexia is the second Cypriot, and the first Cypriot woman, to have obtained the Diploma in the history of The Hague Academy for International Law.
Alexia was called to the Bar of the Republic of Cyprus in 2013, after which she became the Research and Publications Assistant to the Director at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge, where she developed an expertise in peace agreements, transitional justice and the use of force in international law. She then became the Research Associate to the late Professor James R. Crawford SC AC, former Whewell Professor in International Law at the University of Cambridge. While working at Cambridge, Alexia concurrently undertook the Bar Professional Training Course in London on a Prince of Wales Scholarship and she was called to the Bar at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in 2015.
Alexia then worked as an Associate Legal Officer at the International Court of Justice for a term of four years (December 2014 – January 2019), where she served as a legal advisor to one of the Judges of the Court. While doing so, she worked on a series of high-profile inter-state cases and advisory opinions, developing an expertise in land and maritime delimitation, environmental law, the law of the sea, nuclear non-proliferation, and state responsibility. While serving at the International Court of Justice, Alexia was awarded the Best Cypriot Lawyer Abroad Award 2018 from the Young Lawyers Awards Cyprus.
After her return to Cyprus in 2019, Alexia worked as a Senior Associate at a law firm in Limassol and then as a Legal Consultant for the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime. She then joined the European Union Agency for Asylum in 2020, initially as a Case Worker and subsequently as Case Expert (Intermediate) for a term of 3 years, where she processed over 250 applications for international protection, by conducting interviews and preparing opinion on the basis of standard operating procedures and EU asylum acquis.
Alexia has also taught international law at a series of academic institutions, including the American University of Paris, where she taught clinical workshops on the International Court of Justice (2011-2017), UNICAF, where she facilitated public international law modules offered by the University of East London, the University of South Wales, Liverpool John Moores University and Unicaf University Zambia (2020- 2024), and Cyprus Business School, where she taught the Mooting and Advocacy module of the University of West London (2024).