He is also lecturer at Leiden University College (LUC) The Hague, teaching on sovereignty & statehood, law of the sea, structure and functioning of the European Union, as well as global security and collective action. And he is an assistant professor in the field of Dutch constitutional and administrative law at the Erasmus School of Law. Before, Otto was professor of international law at Wuhan University’s China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies as well as its Research Institute of Environmental Law, and founding staff member of its International Water Law Academy. Prior to joining Wuhan University, he worked at the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law and Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea of Utrecht University, Netherlands. He was visiting lecturer inter alia at Peking University Law School, Xiamen University’s China International Water Law Programme, the Università degli Studi di Salerno (Italy), and the Université Catholique d’Afrique Centrale (Yaoundé, Cameroon).

He wrote his doctoral dissertation, entitled The United Nations, the Evolution of Global Values and International Law, at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University. A full list of his publications can be found on the ORCID-page: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4384-314X. 

He worked as public services coordinator at the Peace Palace Library, as international consultant and coordinator for the United Nations International Law Fellowship Programme, as intern for the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and as intern for the Office of Legal Affairs of United Nations Headquarters.

Otto Spijkers studied the basics of international relations at the University of Sussex. He then studied international law at the University of Amsterdam, New York University School of Law (exchange student), and the Hague Academy of International Law (2009 session). He studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Malta (exchange). He obtained a Diplôme approfondi de langue française.