Mara Ntona is a Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde Law School, where she contributes to research and teaching at the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law (CSHRL). She has expertise in the areas of international and EU environmental and human rights law. 

Along with other SCELG colleagues, Mara has investigated the implications of Brexit for environmental governance in Scotland and the UK, with particular reference to issues relating to fisheries, nature conservation, and environmental rights. She has also provided legal consultancy services to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), focusing on place-based marine management and cross-institutional coordination within ocean governance.

As a research assistant to the BeneLex and MARINE BENEFITS projects, Mara explored issues of fair and equitable benefit-sharing arising in the context of the law of the sea – work that went on to inform her doctoral research. Her thesis, soon to be completed, explores the extent to which a human rights-based approach to marine spatial planning can serve as a legal tool for upholding and nurturing the multifaceted linkages between ocean health and human well-being.

Mara obtained her LLB from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She holds an LLM in Global Environment and Climate Change Law from the University of Edinburgh. 

She is a member of the Scottish Universities Legal Network on Europe (SULNE) and the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and Environment (GNHRE).

Before joining academia, Mara worked in private practice, advising clients in matters of constitutional, administrative, and human rights law. She is a member of the Athens Bar Association (Greece).

Law of the sea; international and EU environmental law; international and EU human rights law

Environmental justice; ecosystem- and rights-based approaches to environmental governance; oceans governance; spatial planning