About me

Dr Paulsen joined LSE in 2020 as an assistant professor. She holds a PhD in International Economic Law from The Dickson Poon School of Law, KCL and an LLM in International Law from The George Washington University School of Law. She is on the editorial board for World Trade Review and co-chairs a seminar series on International Economic Law & Policy.

Prior to joining the LSE, Mona was Teaching Fellow for the International Economic Law, Business, and Policy LL.M. Program at Stanford Law School. Before that, she was an Emile Noël Fellow at the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law & Justice, New York University. She has been a visiting lecturer in the law departments at the University of California (Davis) and King’s College London. Mona is a qualified Canadian lawyer and admitted to the bar in Ontario (2007). She has been involved as both an advisor and legal researcher in several international investment treaty disputes and trade disputes arising from subsidisation.

Administrative support: Law.Reception@lse.ac.uk

Dr Paulsen researches and teaches in the fields of international trade and investment law, international development, international political economy, and economic security. Her new article: Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Strategy for Trade Security is forthcoming in the Journal of International Economic Law. This article is the start of a broader research agenda focused on institutional improvements for WTO members to deliberate on the implications of the intersection between trade and security interests. Her forthcoming book with Oxford University Press charts the concept-building of international investment law in the early twentieth century and shows how this history reveals the unsettled foundations around economic development, security, and corporate power that continue to exist in tension today.

Legal research into the geopolitics of trade and economic governance, drawing from the disciplines of history and political economy; trade security; tech development; the past, present, and future of the global economy and international economic governance.

Editorial Board, World Trade Review

Co-Chair, International Economic Law & Policy Seminar Series

Contributor, International Economic Law & Policy Blog

Member, Society of International Economic Law

Member, American Society of International Law

Member, European Society of International Law

Member, Canadian Council of International Law

Speaker, Law of Global Economic Statecraft, October 24, 2022, University of Georgia.
Plenary speaker, World Trade Forum, 23 September 2022, University of Bern.
Keynote, The Stockholm Oxford Law Symposium, 8-9 September 2022 (University of Oxford).

'The Curious Case of US Self-Judging, Part 2' International Economic Law and Policy Blog 30 January 2023
'Will the US bypass the WTO in its pursuit of a new status quo on trade security?' American Politics and Policy 14 December 2022
'How could China respond to recent US export controls?' International Economic Law and Policy Blog 17 October 2022
'Friend-shoring' International Economic Law and Policy Blog 21 April 2022
'Characterizing War in a Trade Context' Opinio Juris 10 March 2022
'Thinking Creatively and Learning from COVID-19: How the WTO can Maintain Open Trade on Critical Supplies' Opinio Juris 2 April 2020
'The historical references in the U.S. First Submission in United States-Certain Measures on Steel and Aluminium Products' International Economic Law and Policy Blog (Oct. 6, 2019).
‘Inconsistencies in Investment Protection Standards’ OGEMID/Transnational Dispute Management (co-authored with Wolfgang Alschner), 2018.
Submission to Global Affairs Canada: Recommendations for Canada’s Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (co-authored with Inu Manek), 2018.
'Transparency as a First Step for Tomorrow’s Investment Treaties' Reshaping Trade through Women’s Economic Empowerment: An Essay Series, The International Law Research Program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2018.
'Federal Court of Canada hearing Canada's application to set aside Bilcon NAFTA award' International Economic Law and Policy Blog (4 February 2018).
'A NAFTA Proposal: Fix the FET Investment Protection Commitment' International Economic Law and Policy Blog (27 September 2017).
'The Forgotten U.S. Purpose of FET Clauses in Post-War Treaties' New Thinking on Investment Treaties, Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment and the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford University, 2016.