About: This page is the culmination of Mohd Imran’s teaching and research during his tenure as a Lecturer at Villa College, Maldives. Motivated by a strong commitment to ensuring that the Maldives is meaningfully represented in the international legal literature of the Global South, he created this repository. It offers a selection of English-language materials that explore various dimensions of international law as they relate to the Maldives.
Note: We will keep updating this page as we find more literature on Maldives engagement with international law.
Podcast: Episode 4 of The Asian Scholar: ‘Teaching International Law in The Maldives: Historical Perspectives, Current Challenges, and Future Developments’ with Mohd Imran (guest) and Md. Rizwanul Islam (host) [LINK]
Imran M, ‘Maldives’ Engagement with International Law’ (Indian Society for Legal Research, 29 April 2022) [LINK]
Ahmed, Asna and Imran, Mohd, Symposium on Decoding Maldives’ Foreign Investment and Arbitration Law Regime (December 15, 2022) [LINK]
Habeeb, Suha, Commodities and Making of International Law in the Indian Ocean Region: A Historical Perspective (July 14, 2025). [LINK]
Abdulla, Ahmed Adham. “Sea level rise, statehood and artificial islands for environmentally displaced persons under international law: Future of the Maldives.” International Journal of Social Research & Innovation 4.1 (2020) [LINK]
McNally, Jack. “The Metamorphosis of Soft Law in Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius/Maldives)(Preliminary Objection).” Austl. Int’l LJ 28 (2021): 195. [LINK]
Gaver, Craig D. “Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian ocean (Mauritius/Maldives).” American Journal of International Law 115.3 (2021): 519-526. [LINK]
Nasheed, Aishath Ruhsha, and Mohd Hisham Mohd Kamal. “Dispute Settlement Mechanisms under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982: The Way Forward for Maldives.” IIUMLJ 31 (2023): 253. [LINK]
Dolla, Simran. “International legal protection for climate refugees: Where lies the haven for the Maldivian people?.” Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy (The) 6.1 (2015): 1-30. [LINK]
Techera, Erika J., and Madelaine Cannell-Lunn. “A review of environmental law in Maldives with respect to conservation, biodiversity, fisheries and tourism.” Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law 22.2 (2019): 228-256. [LINK]
Abdulla, Ahmed Adham. Flag, coastal and port state jurisdiction over the prevention of vessel source pollution in International Law: analysis of implementation by the Maldives. Diss. University of Wollongong, 2011. [LINK]
Falaah, Shamsul. “Islamic Shari’ah and the Rights of Women: The Maldives’ Thirst for International Human Rights Norms of Equality and Non-Discrimination.” Muslim World Journal of Human Rights 13.1 (2016): 101-130. [LINK]
Jabyn, Marium. Local Implications of International Human Rights Treaties: The Impact of a CEDAW Right to Public Life in the Republic of Maldives. Diss. University of Waikato, 2016. [LINK]
Gagain, Michael. “Climate change, sea level rise, and artificial islands: Saving the Maldives’ statehood and maritime claims through the constitution of the oceans.” Colo. J. Int’l Envtl. L. & Pol’y 23 (2012): 77. [LINK]
Beke, Roma. “Global Warming and Displacement: Challenges and Solutions in the Maldives.” Revista Tecnológica-ESPOL 34.1 (2022): 75-91. [LINK]
Hananto, Pulung Widhi Hari, et al. “The Implication of Sea-level Rise Toward the Small Island Nation of Maldives: Legal Perspective.” Law Reform 18.2 (2022): 132-143. [LINK]
Fahmy, Sana, and Ahmed Shahid. “Towards Human Rights Due Diligence: A Review of the Legal Framework and Compliance Mechanisms for Corporate Human Rights Responsibilities in the Maldives.” International Journal of Social Research & Innovation 6.2 (2022): 1-16. [LINK]
Ibrahim, Mohamed. Maldives Commercial Laws Reform: Accommodating the Tenets of Islam. Diss. University of Malaya (Malaysia), 2017. [LINK]
Abdul-Sattar S, ‘British Protectorate Status (1887-1965) and Connotations for the Maldivian Economy’ (2021) 3 Maldives Economic Review 4 [LINK]
Ali Naseer Mohamed, ‘Commercial Diplomacy of the Maldives: How to Turn the Country’s External Commercial Dependency into Strength’ (2021) 2 Maldives Economic Review 12 [LINK]
Alves JDS, ‘Kalu Muhammad Hilali, Sultan of the Maldives (1491-1528)’ (2005) 70 Archipel 53 [LINK]
Ananthavinayagan TV and others, ‘International Law and Maldives: Navigating Geopolitics, Trade and Sovereignty’ (Law 2024) preprint [LINK]
Baord J, ‘Fighting the Tides: Maldives Races to Reclaim More Land as Sea Levels Rise’ (Channel News Asia, 2 April 2022) [LINK]
Bell HCP, The Máldive Islands: An Account of the Physical Features, Climate, History, Inhabitants, Productions, and Trade. (1 edition 1883, Asian Educational Services 2004) [LINK]
Binu John Mailaparambil, ‘The Ali Rajas of Cannanore: Status and Identity at the Interface of Commercial and Political Expansion, 1663-1723’ (Leiden University 2007) [LINK]
Bouchon G, Regent of the Sea’: Cannanore’s Response to Portuguese Expansion, 1507-1528 (Oxford University Press 1988) [LINK]
Brewster D and Rasheed AA, ‘How Maldives Is Adapting to a Changing Security Climate – and Where Australia Benefits’ (The Interpreter, 4 July 2023) [LINK]
De Silva CR, Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and The Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries (Routledge 2018) [LINK]
Falaah S, ‘Towards a Maldivian Nation-State: The Constitutions of 1932 and 1968’ in Kevin Tan and Ridwanul Hoque (eds), Constitutional foundings in South Asia (Hart Publishing, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing 2021) [LINK]
Falaah S, ‘How the Law in the Maldives Paved the Way for a Sunni Legal Tradition’ (2022) 10 Melbourne Asia Review [LINK]
Ghafoor M, ‘Why Maldives Sided With Mauritius on the Chagos Islands’ (The Diplomat, 10 January 2023) [LINK]
Grant TD, Admission to the United Nations: Charter Article 4 and the Rise of Universal Organization (Brill | Nijhoff 2009) [LINK]
Hogendorn J and Johnson M, The Shell Money of the Slave Trade (1st edn, Cambridge University Press 1986) [LINK]
M. N. Pearson, ‘India and the Indian Ocean in the Sixteenth Century’ in Ashin Das Gupta and MN Pearson (eds), India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800 (Oxford University Press 1987) [LINK]
Mailaparambil BJ, Lords of the Sea: The Ali Rajas of Cannanore and the Political Economy of Malabar (1663-1723) (BRILL 2012) [LINK]
‘Maldives Foreign Policy’ (High Commission of the Republic of Maldives, London, 2 August 2023) [LINK]
Maloney C, ‘The Maldives: New Stresses in an Old Nation’ (1976) 16 Asian Survey 654 [LINK]
Maloney C, People of the Maldive Islands (Orient Longman 1980) [LINK]
Maniku HA, ‘Conversion of Maldives to Islam’ (1986) 31 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka Branch 72 [LINK]
Maniku HA, ‘The Economic Make-Up of the Maldivian Society: An Historical Overview’ (SARUNA) [LINK]
Metcalf BD, ‘20. Ibn Battuta as a Qadi in the Maldives’ in Barbara D Metcalf (ed), Islam in South Asia in Practice (Princeton University Press 2010) [LINK]
Michael G, ‘Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, and Artificial Islands: Saving the Maldives’ Statehood and Maritime Claims Through the “Constitution of the Oceans”’ (2012) 23 Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 77 [LINK]
Mimrah Ghafoor, ‘Why Maldives Sided With Mauritius on the Chagos Islands’ (The Diplomat, 10 January 2023) [LINK]
Phadnis U and Luithui ED, ‘The Maldives Enter World Politics’ (1981) 8 Asian Affairs: An American Review 166 [LINK]
Phadnis U and Luithui ED, Maldives, Winds of Change in an Atoll State (South Asian Publishers 1985) [LINK]
Rasheed AA, ‘Small Island Climate Diplomacy in the Maldives and Beyond’ (E-International Relations, 16 June 2019) [LINK]
Rasheed AA, ‘The Role of the Maldives in the Indo-Pacific Security Space in South Asia’ (E-International Relations, 27 July 2023) [LINK]
Romero-Frías X, The Maldive Islanders: A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom (3rd rev. ed, Nova Ethnographia Indica 2003) [LINK]
Ryavec KE, ‘Maldives’ in Helen Chapin Metz (ed), Indian Ocean: Five Island Countries (3 edition, Federal Research Division: Library of Congress 1995) [LINK]
Shafie AA and Aziz SA, ‘SUPREME COURT’S JUDICIAL REVIEW AUTHORITY VS. CONSTITUTIONAL SUPREMACY IN THE MALDIVES: DOES THE CONSTITUTION STILL REIGN SUPREME?’ (2019) 27 IIUM Law Journal 469 [LINK]
Suood HA, The Maldivian Legal System (Maldives Law Institute 2014) [LINK]
Yang B, Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: A Global History (1st edn, Routledge 2018) [LINK]
Maldives-UAE Bilateral Investment Treaty: AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALDIVES And THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ON THE PROMOTION AND RECIPROCAL PROTECTION OF INVESTMENTS [LINK]
Indian Society for Legal Research 