Dr Marie-Catherine Petersmann

Bio

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher working as part of the 'Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene' research project hosted at Tilburg Law School. Prior to that, I was Postdoctoral Research Fellow (SNF) at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Utrecht) and Teaching Associate at the Strathclyde Center for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG, Glasgow). I earned a PhD and LLM in International Law from the European University Institute (Florence) and a Masters in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva). 

As an international legal scholar, my research is situated at the intersection of legal theory, political ecology and ecological philosophy. It appeared in multiple journals and my monograph – titled Environmental Protection and Human Rights: The Politics of Conflict and its Management by Regional Human Rights Courts – is forthcoming with CUP (2021).

Courses

• Research Design and Methods for Postnational Lawyers
• Introduction to International/EU Law

Collaboration

I am Book Review Editor for the Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (RECIEL); and a member of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE) and the World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN WCEL).

Highlights

Awards and recognitions:

- 2020: Swiss Society for International Law Award for Best Doctoral or Habilitation Thesis in public international law, private international law, European law or comparative law

- 2019: Honorable Mention European Society of International Law (ESIL) Young Scholar Prize

- 2018: Honorable Mention Journal of Environmental Law Richard Macrory Prize for Best Article

- 2016: IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Best Graduate Student Paper Award

Grants and funding:

- 2019-2020: Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) (75'000€)

- 2014-2018: Full grant for EUI doctoral programme from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) (80'000€)

Recent publications

1. Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene

   Leach, M., Petersmann, M-C., Fleurke, F., Lindahl, H., Paiement, P., & Somsen, H. (2022). Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene. Journal of human rights and the environment.

2. Citizen sensing and ontopolitics in the anthropocene

   Berti Suman, A., & Petersmann, M-C. (2021). Citizen sensing and ontopolitics in the anthropocene. In S. Milan, E. Treré, & S. Masiero (Eds.), COVID-19 from the margins. : Pandemic invisibilities, policies and resistance in the datafied society. (pp. 225-240). (Theory on Demand Series; No. 40). Institute of Network Cultures.

3. Contested indigeneity and traditionality in environmental litigation …

   Petersmann, M-C. (2021). Contested indigeneity and traditionality in environmental litigation: The politics of expertise in regional human rights courts. Human Rights Law Review, 21(1), 132-156.

4. I wish there was a treaty we could sign - An inquiry into the making …

   Petersmann, M-C. (2021). I wish there was a treaty we could sign: An inquiry into the making of the global pact for the environment. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 28(2), 7-80.

5. Review of the book The unconstructable earth: An ecology of separatio…

   Petersmann, M-C. (2021). Review of the book The unconstructable earth: An ecology of separation, F. Neyrat, translated from French by Drew S. Burk, 2018. Law and Humanities, 1-8.