Catharine Titi


Catharine Titi is an international lawyer and research associate professor at the Paris-based French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Biography

She decided to study law at a young age, when she discovered the legal speeches of Lysias, an ancient Greek orator. Before joining the CNRS, she studied in Greece and London, and then went on to obtain a PhD in Germany. In addition to her legal background, she has a history of art degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Her work focuses on public international law, and in particular on equity in international law, international investment law, and cultural heritage law. She co-chairs the Academic Forum on ISDS, a scientific society with a particular interest in the negotiations on reform of investor-state dispute settlement in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. She is an expert in the repatriation of cultural property and a member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage. In 2016, she became the first woman to be awarded the Smit-Lowenfeld Prize by the International Arbitration Club of New York.
In her 2023 book, The Parthenon Marbles and International Law, she argued that the Parthenon Marbles currently exposed in the British Museum should be repatriated to Greece on legal grounds. Commentators have described the work as "a tour de force on the law", "truly groundbreaking", "compelling", and "marvellously written and with a keen eye for both detail and nuance". Since 2025, she is a member of the French Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. For her engagement in the matter, French media has often seen her as a successor to Melina Mercouri.
In 2026, she published her first co-authored nonfiction book in Spanish, Arte secuestrado: Los mármoles del Partenón, el penacho de Moctezuma y otras historias ocultas de nuestros museos . She explained that writing in Spanish was a challenge but one she particularly welcomed.

Selected works

MonographsThe Parthenon Marbles and International Law The Function of Equity in International Law The Right to Regulate in International Investment Law
Edited booksThe Award in International Investment Arbitration Mediation in International Commercial and Investment Disputes International Investment Law and Competition Law International Investment Law and the Law of Armed Conflict
Non-fiction
  • ''Arte secuestrado: Los mármoles del Partenón, el penacho de Moctezuma y otras historias ocultas de nuestros museos''