Event

Event Overview

Please join us for an all-day hybrid academic symposium “African Perspectives on International Climate Change Law.”  Panel sessions at the symposium will cover topics such as “Participation of African States in Shaping International Law” or “Climate Change and Loss and Damage.” 

This is a hybrid symposium. If you wish to join virtually, please register on Zoom. 

Food and refreshments will be provided.  

The symposium is co-organized by HRP, the Center for International Law & Policy in Africa (CILPA) and the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of the Western Cape. It is co-sponsored by the Salata Institute, the Petrie-Flom Center, the David Rockefeller for Latin American Studies, Human Rights Entrepreneurs and Incubator Clinic, and the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World. 

African Perspectives on International Climate Change Law – A Symposium 

There has been a significant rise in climate change litigation over the last decade. The recent advisory opinion proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), as well as the request for an advisory opinion before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are judicial proceedings with potentially far-reaching implications towards the obligations of states in connection with climate change. 

Although African states have signalized a willingness to play a significant role in global climate matters, it is far from clear whether or how much they will participate in shaping international climate change law. This is despite the fact that Africa has contributed only to a very limited extent to the climate crisis, with just about 4% percent of global cumulative emissions, and stands out disproportionately as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. This symposium will foreground African perspectives on international climate change law which, due to pre-existing power structures, are more likely to be overlooked in global norm-making processes. 

Full Program: 

8:30 | 9:00        Arrival & Coffee/Tea

9:00 | 9:30        Welcome and Opening Remarks

Welcome

Professor Gerald L. Neuman, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School and Director of the school’s Human Rights Program

Keynote Address

Hajer Gueldich, AU Legal Counsel, Professor at of International Law at the University of Carthage, Former Chairperson of the African Union Commission on International Law

9:30 | 10:45        Panel 1: Participation of African States in Shaping International Law

Moderator: James Gathii, Wing-Tat Lee Chair in International Law and Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Phoebe Okowa, D.Phil., Professor of Public International Law, Director of Graduate Studies, Queen Mary University of London

Alpha Sesay, Hon., Deputy Minister of Justice, Sierra Leone

Charles C. Jalloh, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor at Florida International University, member of the UN International Law Commission

10:45 | 10:55     Coffee/Tea Break

10:55 | 11:00     Brief Remarks

Payam Akhavan, S.J.D., Professor of International Law and Chair in Human Rights, Massey College, University of Toronto, Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

11:00 | 12:00       Panel 2: Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities

Moderator: Idriss Fofana, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Makane Moïse Mbengue, Ph.D., Professor of International Law and Director of the Department of International Law and International Organization at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva

Kim Bouwer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Durham Law School and Visiting Senior Fellow at Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics

Gus Waschefort, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Essex

12:00 | 1:30        Lunch Discussion

The Role of Courts in Advancing the Right to a Healthy Environment: Lessons from Latin America

Welcoming Remarks

Sol Carbonell, Interim Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University

Moderator: Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law; Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School

Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Mexico

Antonio Herman Benjamin, Justice of the National High Court of Brazil

Ricardo Lorenzetti, Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina

1:30 | 3:00        Panel 3: Adaptation, Mitigation, Loss, and Damage

Moderator: Ada Ordor, Ph.D., Steiner Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Harvard Law School, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA) at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town

Dalindyebo Shabalala, Ph.D., Professor of Law at the Suffolk University Law School, Assistant Professor of International Economic Law (adjunct) at Maastricht University

Oluwatoyin Adejonwo, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Law, University of Lagos. Honorary Senior Lecturer in Law, Dundee Law School, University of Dundee  

Angela van der Berg, University of Western Cape, Associate Professor at the Department of Public Law and Jurisprudence, Director at Global Environmental Law Centre, University of Western Cape

Funmi Abioye, LL.D., Associate Professor of Law in the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of South Africa, Sessional Lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law  

Olanrewaju Fagbohun, Professor of Environmental Law and Former Vice Chancellor at Lagos State University

3:00 | 3:15        Coffee/Tea Break

3:15 | 3:20        Brief Remarks

Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Ph.D., Professor of Law and Deputy Dean for Research and Post-Graduate Studies at the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cape, member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

3:20 | 4:45        Panel 4: Human Rights and Climate Change

Moderator: Angela Hefti, Ph.D., Visiting Researcher, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School

Ademola Oluborode Jegede, Professor of Law, NRF rated researcher, and Interim Director Ismail Mahomed Centre for Human and Peoples’ Rights, University of Venda School of Law

Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Ph.D., Professor of Law and Deputy Dean for Research and Post-Graduate Studies at the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cape, member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

Yusra Suedi, Ph.D., Lecturer in International Law at the University of Manchester

Pedi Obani, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Bradford School of Law, Visiting Researcher in Water Security, Policy, and Governance at the University of Leeds

Abadir M. Ibrahim, J.S.D., Associate Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School

4:45 | 5:00        Closing Reflections

Charles C. Jalloh; Hajer Gueldich; Benyam Dawit Mezmur

Speaker Biographies: 

Funmi Abioye is a sessional Lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law. Until recently, she was Associate Professor of Law in the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of South Africa. She has been teaching in this field and other fields for the past ten years. Her interests include various fields of international law, rule of law in Africa, good governance and legitimate leadership on the continent, and she has published successfully in these fields. She is an admitted Solicitor and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, where she served as counsel for 5 years in various matters before commencing with her LLM and LLD degrees. Abioye is an editor of the Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa (CILSA). She has held many administrative posts within the College of Law. She obtained her LLM and LLD degrees from the University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa, in the field of International Law.

Oluwatoyin Adejonwo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Law at Dundee Law School, University of Dundee. She recently visited the Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch as a visiting scholar and a guest lecturer in the postgraduate course on sustainable development law, and the Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law University of Pretoria as a guest lecturer for the Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa Programme. Dr. Adejonwo is the founding Director of the Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Development (3CSD) and a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She has, at various times, consulted for international environmental organizations including the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Environment. Oluwatoyin serves on the Committee of Experts providing legal, advisory and technical support on climate change to the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment. She holds a PhD in International Environmental Law from the School of Law, University of Dundee, United Kingdom.

Payam Akhavan is Professor of International Law and Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto, Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and former Legal Advisor, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (1994-2000). He has also served with the UN in Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Guatemala, and Timor Leste. He was previously Full Professor at McGill University Faculty of Law in Montreal and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, with other appointments at Yale Law School, Leiden University, European University Institute, Oxford University, Université Paris Nanterre, and Sciences Po École de Droit. He has appeared as counsel before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He also serves as Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Global Affairs of Canada, is Senior Fellow and Canadian Co-Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and Co-Founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre.

Kim Bouwer is an Assistant Professor at Durham Law School in 2021. She has held posts or visiting positions at a variety of global institutions, including UCL, the EUI, the University of the Witwatersrand, KCL, and the University of Exeter.  From November 2023 she is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. Dr Kim Bouwer specializes in climate change and environmental law, and private law (predominantly torts). She has also been the UK Rapporteur for the British Institute for International and Comparative Law on their Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics project.  Before her doctoral research, Dr Bouwer worked as a lawyer. She trained conducting legal community service in Johannesburg, then worked as an attorney in South Africa. Thereafter, Dr. Bouwer worked as a solicitor at several Legal 500 firms in London, conducting claimant public interest litigation. Dr. Bouwer holds an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and an LLM from the University of London. She completed her PhD at University College London.

Olanrewaju Fagbohun is a Professor of Environmental Law and Former Vice Chancellor at Lagos State University. He lectured at LASU for 19 years at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels before joining the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in 2009. At different times, Professor Fagbohun has served as consultant and task leader for the United Nations Environmental Programme, the British Council, the European Commission, World Council on Genetics, University of Nottingham, the Harvard Medical School, the National Judicial Institute, and several State Governments among others.  He is an Assessor/External Examiner for MPhil/Ph.D. programs of a number of universities in Nigeria; the University of Forth Hare, South Africa; and the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.  He is also on the Board of the Environmental Law Research Institute. He is a founding member of the Environmental Law Research Institute (ELRI), a nonprofit organization for applied environmental research and policy analysis. Professor Fagbohun received his training at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and at the University of Lagos from where he earned his Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws and later doctorate degree.

Idriss Fofana is an Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses in public international law, legal history, and comparative law. He writes and teaches in the areas of international law, comparative law, legal history, and law and colonialism. Before joining the faculty, he was the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School. He also served as a Judicial Fellow for Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf, then president of the International Court of Justice. He has also been a visiting scholar at Zhejiang University, Jinan University (Guangzhou), Fudan University Law School, and Paris 1 University Panthéon-Sorbonne. Professor. Professor Fofana has also participated in litigation and advocacy on matters of immigration, citizenship, and national security, and he has worked in the public international law and international arbitration practices of major law firms. He received an A.B. in physics degree from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he participated in litigation and advocacy on matters of immigration, citizenship, and national security. He received his doctoral training in African and Chinese history at Columbia University.

James T. Gathii is the Wing-Tat Lee Chair in International Law and Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law since July 2012. He sits on the board of editors of the Journal of African Law and the Journal of International Trade Law and Policy, among others. He is co-editor in Chief of the African Journal of International Economic Law (AfJIEL) and a founding Editor of Afronomicslaw and one of the convenors of the African Sovereign Debt Justice Network (AfSDJN). Professor Gathii’s research and teaching interests are in Public International Law, International Trade Law, Third World Approaches to International Law, (TWAIL), Comparative Constitutional Law and Human Rights. He has sat as an arbitrator in two international commercial arbitrations and one ISDS case hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. He is a founding member of the TWAIL network. He is an elected member of the International Academy of International Law. He has consulted for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, (OHCHR), and the Economic Commission for Africa, (ECA), among others. Professor Gathii is a graduate of the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and Harvard Law School.

Hajer Gueldich is the current African Union Legal Counsel. She served as an elected Member of the African Union Commission on International law (AUCIL) (2015-2023) and the Chairperson of the Commission (2022-2023). She was appointed as a member of the team of experts on the Institutional Reform of the African Union, since 2017. Prof. Gueldich is a professor in law at the University of Carthage (Tunisia) where she is also the Director of the Center of Research in International law, International Jurisdictions and Comparative Constitutional Law. She is also a visiting Professor at the Universities of Angers and Rennes (France), Venice and Siena (Italy), Saint Joseph (Lebanon), Laval University (Canada) and the Pan-African University (Cameroon). She has several publications in the fields of international law, humanitarian law, human rights, constitutional law, political science, administrative organization, compared legal systems and transitional periods, in Tunisia and abroad. Prof. Gueldich obtained her undergraduate law degrees as well as her PhD at the University of Carthage.

Angela Hefti is a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School.  Angela spent her fellowship at the European Court of Human Rights. Previously, she was a research fellow at the Schell Center for International Human Rights, where she conducted research towards the completion of her Ph.D., based at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland. She was also a co-founder and co-President of the YLS European Law Association. She earned her LL.M. as a Fulbright scholar. Prior to her graduate studies, Angela worked at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland, where she was the Associate Director of an international human rights program and a researcher/lecturer. She also clerked at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica and was a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Germany. During her legal education in Spain and Switzerland, Angela interned at the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the Netherlands, and the Spanish Refugee Commission in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Abadir M. Ibrahim is the Associate Director of the Human Rights Program (HRP) at Harvard Law School. He plays a substantive and managerial role in innovating and implementing academic activities, including the speaker series, conferences, and the HRP’s various fellowships. Dr. Ibrahim’s current research agenda focuses on African approaches to human rights and his broader research interests encompass the intersections between global human rights normative structures and non-Western cultural/religious institutions and traditions with an emphasis on normative ethics and religion. His academic and legal work focuses on African countries, and especially his home country of Ethiopia, and engages with the African system of human rights. Dr. Ibrahim worked in different roles within the human rights field and his career spans government administration, legal practice, advocacy, scholarship and education. Previously, he was the Head of the Secretariat for the Legal and Justice Affairs Advisory Council of Ethiopia – an independent statutory body mandated with advising and providing technical support to the Ethiopian government on pro-democracy and pro-rights justice sector reforms. He earned his J.S.D. from the Intercultural Human Rights Program at St. Thomas University, School of Law. Dr. Ibrahim further holds LL.M. degrees from St. Thomas University and Addis Ababa University respectively, and an LL.B. from Addis Ababa University.

Charles C. Jalloh is a Distinguished University Professor of International Law at Florida International University, in Miami, USA and Founder of the Center for International Law and Policy in Africa (CILPA). He is a member and special rapporteur of the UN International Law Commission (ILC). Formerly a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Public International Law at Lund University, he has published widely in the field of international law. He serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals, including the African Journal of Legal Studies and the American Journal of International Law. Before academia, Jalloh practiced law at the national and international levels as Counsel in the Canadian Department of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, a Legal Adviser in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and an Associate Legal Officer in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. His education includes a B.A. from the University of Guelph, LL.B. and B.C.L. degrees from McGill University, a Master’s in International Human Rights Law, with distinction, from Oxford University, where he was a Chevening Scholar and a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Amsterdam.

Ademola Oluborode Jegede is a Professor of Law and a National Research Foundation rated researcher in the School of Law, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa. He is currently serving as Interim Director of the Ismail Mahomed Centre for Human and Peoples’ Rights, University of Venda School of Law.  He has been a research visitor to the Centre for International Environmental Law, USA and Human Rights Institute at Abo Akademi, Finland. Prof. Jegede’s research area is on the intersection of climate change and biodiversity loss with human rights of vulnerable groups. He is a fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar and the initiator and convening Editor of African Journal of Climate Law and Justice. He holds degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, University of Ibadan and the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.

Makane Moïse Mbengue is Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and Director of the Department of International Law and International Organization. He is also an Affiliate Professor at Sciences Po Paris (School of Law). He also teaches courses in international law organized by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) and by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Since 2017, he is the President of the African Society of International Law (AfSIL). He has acted and acts as expert for the African Union, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) among others. Prof. Mbengue acts as counsel in disputes before international courts and tribunals (in particular, before the International Court of Justice and in investment cases) and as advisor for governments. He holds a Ph.D. in Public International Law from the University of Geneva.

Benyam Dawit Mezmur is a Professor of Law and Deputy Dean for Research and Post-Graduate Studies at the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cap (UWC). From 2022-2023, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program. He is also Coordinator of the Children’s Rights Project at the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance, and Human Rights, at UWC. Since 2012, he has served on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, and served as its Chairperson. Professor Mezmur has served on the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Benyam has offered his technical services to a large number of organizations such as UNICEF, UNHCR, OHCHR, African Union, and the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children. He currently serves on the advisory and/or expert boards of a number of organizations including the Children’s Institute (Cape Town), Keeping Children Safe (UK), All Survivors Project (Liechtenstein), Institute on Statelessness (The Netherlands and UK), and the KidsRights International Children’s Peace Prize (Netherlands). Professor Mezmur obtained an LLB from Addis Ababa University, an LLM from the University of Pretoria, and a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of the Western Cape.

Gerald L. Neuman is the Director of the Human Rights Program, and the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School (HLS). He teaches courses in international human rights law, immigration and nationality law, and U.S. constitutional law. From 2011 to 2014, he served as a Member of the UN Human Rights Committee, the international body of independent experts that monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, one of the principal human rights instruments that form the “International Bill of Rights.” Professor Neuman has published widely on issues of human rights law, immigration and nationality law, and U.S. and comparative constitutional law.  Prior to joining HLS, Neuman was the Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School. He began his teaching career at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has also been a visiting professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitaet, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, and has taught in programs at the universities of Leiden, Freiburg, and Tokyo. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an A.B. from Harvard College.

Pedi Obani is an Associate Professor at the University of Bradford School of Law and a visiting researcher in Water Security, Policy, and Governance at the University of Leeds. Before starting her academic career, she qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and was active in private law practice. Dr. Obani’s research interests revolve around inclusive development and sustainability, including the interactions between law and climate change, governance of water and other natural resources, and gender issues. In the course of her academic career, Pedi has received several national and international research grants and awards, such as the Global Challenges Research Fund, Nigeria Tertiary Education Trust Fund, and the United Kingdom African Studies Association Mary Kingsley Zochonis Fellowship. Dr. Obani graduated with a distinction from the University of Aberdeen and is a former NUFFIC Netherlands Fellowship Professional (NFP) fellow. She obtained her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2018. Following this, between 2019 and 2020, she worked with the United Nations University – Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) as a Research Fellow in Environmental Policy.

Phoebe Okowa is Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary, University of London. Educated at the University of Nairobi and Oxford, she previously taught at the University of Bristol and has held visiting appointments at the University of Lille and Stockholm. In 2011 and 2015, she was Global Visiting Professor at the New York University, School of Law. In 2017 she was nominated by the Government of Kenya to the Permanent Court of Arbitration and in November 2021, Professor Okowa was elected to the UN International Law Commission for the term 2023-2027. She is on the Public International Law Advisory Panel of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the Committee of Legal Experts of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law.   She has written on a wide range of contemporary international law topics including the interface between international responsibility and individual accountability for international crimes, unilateral and collective responses to the protection of natural resources in conflict zones, and aspects of the protection of the environment.

Ada Ordor is the Steiner Visiting Professor in Human Rights for the Spring term 2024. A law professor and director of the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA) at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town (UCT), Professor Ordor’s work explores issues of law and development from various perspectives that demonstrate the interconnectedness of development processes and the laws that govern them. She has held academic positions at the Nigerian Law School from 2001 to 2007 and visiting research positions at the African Gender Institute, UCT, in 2000 as a visiting associate and at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Civil Society Studies, Baltimore in 2003 as a senior international philanthropy fellow. She is an international fellowship alumna of the American Association of University Women and editor of the Journal of Comparative Law in Africa. Professor Ordor holds an LL.B. from the University of Jos, an LL.M from the University of Nigeria, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town.

Alpha Sesay is the Deputy Minister of Justice for Sierra Leone since 2023. Until this appointment he was the Senior Democracy, Rights and Governance Advisor for USAID in Sierra Leone. Before USAID, he was Senior Advocacy Officer at the Open Society Foundations, based in Washington, DC, (USA) where he worked largely on human rights litigation and advocacy before regional and international human rights mechanisms. Mr. Sesay has had extensive experience working in the field of international human rights, international criminal justice and on broader issues relating to accountability for atrocity crimes. He has done so in the context of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and regional human rights bodies including the ECOWAS Court, African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Mr. Sesay is founding president of the Fourah Bay College Human Rights Clinic and founding Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Program. Sesay was an Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program from 2018 to 2019. Mr. Sesay holds an LL.M in International Human Rights from the University of Notre Dame Law School, USA, and was called to the Sierra Leone Bar almost 20 years ago.

Dalindyebo Shabalala is a Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School.  He also has a partial appointment as Assistant Professor of International Economic Law (Intellectual property) at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Prof. Shabalala was Professor at the University of Dayton School of Law until 2023, Visiting Assistant Professor at CWRU School of Law from 2014 – 2017 and Assistant Professor of International Economic Law at Maastricht University from 2009 – 2014. Prof. Shabalala’s research focuses on the interaction of intellectual property law, especially patent law, with the rights of indigenous peoples and climate change law. He was also Managing Attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Geneva office, and Director of CIEL’s Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development Project. He is the Vice Chair of CIEL’s Board of Trustees. Prof. Shabalala holds a Ph.D. from Maastricht University, Netherlands, a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School (cum laude), and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College, New York.

Yusra Suedi is a Lecturer in International Law at the University of Manchester where she is the Director of International Law LLM/MA programs and co-directs the Manchester International Law Centre. Prior to this, she was a Fellow in Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Dr. Suedi actively practices international law and has previously worked for the United Nations Office in Geneva, the International Law Commission, the Institut Du Droit International, the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal and the International Court of Justice. She has also assisted counsel acting for governments and organizations before the International Court of Justice. She has held teaching and research positions at the London School of Economics (LSE) Law School and King’s College London, UK. She is a member of the Diversity and Advisory Body and Co-Convenor of the Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals, both within the European Society of International Law. Dr. Suedi is also a Contributing Editor to CILDialogues Blog run by the Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore. She holds a doctorate in Public International Law from the University of Geneva.

Angela van der Berg is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Law and Jurisprudence of the University of Western Cape, as well as the Director of the Global Environmental Law Centre, University of Western Cape. She specializes in public law and governance. Her research relates to international and domestic environmental law, urban governance, and climate change. Recently Dr. van der Berg worked as Urban Law Consultant for UN Habitat on a project related to Social Housing and Urban Policy in the Netherlands and South Africa. She has authored several journal articles and book chapters in accredited, peer reviewed scholarly publications, and regularly presents at national and international conferences. She obtained an LLB and a master’s in environmental law and governance, LLM, (cum laude) from the North-West University South Africa, and PhD in Law and Development jointly with Tilburg University, Netherlands and the North-West University, South Africa.

Gus Waschefort is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Essex. Gus Waschefort is a Member both of the Bar of England and Wales, as well as the Bar of South Africa and a member of Guernica 37 Chambers. Gus has a broad experience in public international law practice, with specific expertise in relation to the African continent. Prior to joining the University of Essex, he held academic appointments at the University of Pretoria, as lecturer, and the University of South Africa, as Associate Professor. Between 2011 and 2013 Gus was appointed as legal advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Gus has also been a visiting researcher to the International Law Centre of the Swedish National Defence University, as well as the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice, at New York University. Prof. Waschefort has provided legal advice and training to the United Nations, as well as branches of the armed forces, government departments, national human rights mechanisms, and civil society organizations.  He holds an LLB degree from the University of Pretoria and a PhD, SOAS, from the University of London.