Professor Martins Paparinskis joined UCL Faculty of Laws in 2013. Prior to this, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College Oxford and a Hauser Research Scholar at the New York University. He took an LL.B. from the University of Latvia, before coming to the UK to take his M.Jur. (Dist, Clifford Chance Prize), M.Phil (Dist), and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. He is a Member of the PhD Scientific Board of the Doctoral College of the University of Milan-Bicocca and a Global Fellow at the National University of Singapore Centre for International Law, and has held visiting positions at the National University of Singapore and the University of Bologna. In 2016, he received UCL Laws Excellence Award for Legal Teaching (EXALT): Graduate. 

Martins' research expertise is reflected in his appointments. He is a member of the United Nations International Law Commission (2023-). Martins is a member of the Council of Independent Experts in International and European Law with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia (since 2012), and has been a member of Latvia's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly's Sixth Committee (Legal) (2021-2) and delivered statements there on behalf of the Baltic States (2021). In the field of international dispute settlement, he is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (since 2017) and a conciliator of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (since 2019). In the field of investment law, Martins is a member of the ICSID Panels of Arbitrators (since 2014, re-designated 2020) and of Conciliators (since 2020), a member of the Beijing Arbitration Commission / Beijing International Arbitration Center's Panel of Arbitrators for International Investment Arbitration, and a member of CIETAC (China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission) Panel of Arbitrators (both since 2022). In the field of human rights, he is a member of the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the list of experts for the OSCE Human dimension mechanism (Moscow mechanism) (both since 2022), and has been a member of the management board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2017-22) and an expert in a case by the invitation of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (2021). In the field of environmental law, Martins is a member of the implementation committee of the UNECE Water Convention (since 2018). In the field of law of the sea, he was the Lead Discussant to Interactive Dialogue 7 of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference. 

Martins is the Editor in Chief of CIL Dialogues, the Book Review Editor of Journal of World Investment and Trade, and a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of International Economic Law, Editorial Advisory Board of Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, the Academic Review Board of Cambridge Journal of International Law, the Editorial Board of Journal of the University of Latvia. Law, and the Editorial Advisory Board of Investment Claims, and has been a member of UCL Press executive group (editorial board) and a co-editor of Current Legal Problems. He is a member of the Academic Forum on ISDS, the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the Advisory Board of the BIICL Young ITF, and the International Law Association’s Committee on Rule of Law and International Investment Law. Martins has been a member of the Association's Committee on Non-State Actors and Study Group on the Use of Domestic Law Principles for the Development of International Law.