Elisa Morgera

Elisa Morgera is Professor of Global Environmental Law and Co-Director of Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance. She specializes in international, European and comparative environmental law, with a particular focus on the interaction between biodiversity law and human rights (particularly those of indigenous peoples and local communities), equity and sustainability in natural resource development, oceans governance, and corporate accountability. Elisa has also researched the environmental dimensions of the external relations of the European Union (EU).

Prof Elisa Morgera was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant (2013-2018) on the legal concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing in different areas of international law (environment, oceans and human rights) and a grant under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme (funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)) investigating specifically fair and equitable benefit-sharing in international fisheries law and policy (2015-2016). Both projects are inter-disciplinary in nature.

Elisa has recently guest-edited a special issue of the Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law (RECIEL) on comparative environmental law (volume 24:4, 2015); and coordinated two edited volumes: the Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources (forth late 2016, Edward Elgar), co-edited with Prof Kati Kulovesi; and an Encyclopedia on Nature Conservation Law (forth March 2017, Edward Elgar), co-edited with Prof Jona Razzaque.

Elisa has served as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Commission, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In addition, Elisa has participated as an observer in international environmental negotiations, including under the CBD and on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, since 2005.

Prior to joining academia, Elisa served as legal officer for FAO, advising over fifty countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the South Pacific on improving domestic legislation on natural resources; and as environmental management officer for UNDP in the Eastern Caribbean, working closely with the Global Environment Facility.

Elisa has a PhD in international law from the European University Institue and an LLM in Environmental Law from University College London. Since 2015 Elisa has also been holding the honorary post of Adjunct Professor of International and European Environmental Law at the University of Eastern Finland. Prior to joining Strathclyde University, Elisa was Professor of Global Environmental Law at Edinburgh University Law School, where she was based since 2009. Elisa has also taught at the Academy of Human Rights Law of the European University Institute, l'Institut d'études politiques de Paris, and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, among others. 

Elisa is the lead co-editor of the book series Legal Studies on Access and Benefit-sharing (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff), and on the Editorial Board of RECIEL, the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Europe and The World: A Law Review, and Spring book series Legal Issues in Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies. She is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, the IUCN Global Specialist Group on Access and Benefit-sharing, the International Council of Environmental Law, and the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and Environment.

Elisa has direct experience of international law-making in the areas of biodiversity, oceans and corporate environmental accountability; and of participatory reform of national legislation on natural resources (forests, fisheries, mountains, organic agriculture, wildlife).

Elisa speaks Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. She has conducted field work (for the UN or on academic research projects) in Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chile, Comoros, Croatia, Dominica, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Grenada, Hungary, Jordan, Malaysia, Namibia, Niue, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Syria, Tonga, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Uruguay.