Members

The Universitat de Barcelona is a leading centre of education, science, and critical thought. Its commitment to serving the interests of local society and the country as a whole combines with its ascertainable dynamics, constructive and humanist character. As for the teaching, students are distributed across 67 Bachelor’s degrees, 141 university Masters’ degrees, 48 doctoral programmes, 654 postgraduate programs and over 600 lifelong learning courses. In the area of research, it is one of Spanish leading universities and it plays a predominant role in Spain’s scientific, technological, intellectual and cultural progress. It holds a place among the top 250 world universities, according to the THE ranking and is considered one of the best 200 universities in the world as reported by the ARWU ranking. Besides, it is the only Spanish member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU).

The Chair management is guaranteed by its academic staff. The UB Faculty of Law and its Legal Environmental Clinic, as well as the UB Water Research Institute (IdRA) will support some of the teaching activities. The Centre for Environmental Law Studies of Tarragona (CEDAT, Universitat Rovira i Virgili) brings its large experience as a think tank on Environmental Law research as well as in the organization of events related to the field covered by the Chair’s activities.

Members:

Dra. Mar Campins Eritja (Jean Monnet Chair holder)

〉〉 Publications

Full Professor of Public International Law and EU Law at UB. Main areas of teaching and research are EU Law and European and International Environmental Law, with a focus on climate change international regime. She has led and participated in various competitive research projects and published in these areas. Fulbright Scholar at American University WCL and visiting Professor at the Universities of Ottawa, Dalhousie, Montreal, Nova Southeastern and Puerto Rico. Member of the Consolidated Research Group “Area of International Public Law”, member of the UB IdRA’s Direction Board and of the CEDAT. Member of the Editorial Board of the Revista Catalana de Dret Ambiental. Vice Dean in the Faculty of Law (2002-2005 and 2016-present) and Vice Rector and Deputy Vice Rector for International Policy (2005-2008) at the UB.

Dr. Xavier Pons Rafols

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Full Professor of Public International Law and EU Law at UB. Dean of the Faculty of Law. Main areas of teaching and research are International Law, EU Law, International Organisations, Forest Law, and Fisheries Law. He has participated in various competitive research projects as leading researcher (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). He has been an international legal consultant for the FAO and has published numerous articles in specialized journals. At the University of Barcelona he has held management positions as Vice President (2001-2002), President of the Social, Economic and Legal Sciences Division (2002-2003), General Secretary of the University (2005-2008) and Dean (since 2016).

Dr. Xavier Fernández Pons

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Associate Professor of Public International Law and International Trade Law at UB. Certificate of the Centre for Studies and Research of the Hague Academy of International Law. Main areas of teaching and research are Public International Law and International Economic Law. He has participated in various national and international competitive research projects in these areas. Member of the Consolidated Research Group “Area of Public International Law”. He participates in the UB Observatory of Globalization. Member of the CEDAT. Visiting Professor at the Universities of National University of Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, FLACSO, São Paulo and the Doctoral School on Latin American, European and Comparative Regionalism (UNU). Co-Director of the UB Master of Laws in International Economic Law and Policy since 2016 and academic supervisor at the TradeLab Clinic Network (GIIDS of Geneva).

Dr. Alex Peñalver i Cabré

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Associate Professor of Administrative Law at the UB. Main areas of teaching and research are Environmental law, Public Interest Law Litigation and Local Government. He has led and participated in various competitive research projects and published in these areas. He was an associate researcher at Harvard University in USA. Member of the Consolidated Research Group “Area of Administrative Law”, the UB Public Law Institute and of the Observatory of Environmental Policies (OPA), where he is responsible for “access to justice in environmental matters”. Member of the editorial board (section Suprem Court Case Law) in the Revista de Administración Pública. Coordinator of Administrative Law Area (2015-2016), secretary of the Administrative Law section (2016-present) and coordinator of the Environmental Law Clinic at the UB (2013-present).

Dra. Mar Aguilera Vaqué

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Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at the UB. Main areas of teaching and research are Constitutional Law, Rights and Freedoms and Spanish Environmental Law. Member of various competitive research projects in these areas and published related papers. She holds an LLM from Columbia Law School (NYC) and has been a visiting researcher and scholar at Harvard Law School (Cambridge) and at the European University Institute (Florence).  Since 2008 she is also a visiting constitutional professor at the University of Lyon 2. She is a board member and consultant at the Environmental Law Fund (Barcelona). She has a broad experience as international observer and legal analyst at the European Union Electoral Observation Missions.  She has worked as an environmental lawyer for two international law firms (Balaña Eguia-Loeff Claeys Verbeke (Barcelona) and Torres Plaz Araujo (Venezuela).

Dr. Antoni Pigrau Solé

〉〉 Publications

Full Professor of Public International Law at URV. Dean of the Faculty of Law. Member of the Governing Council of the International Catalan Institute for Peace. Director of the Tarragona Centre for Environmental Law Studies (CEDAT). Coordinator of the “Territory, Citizenship and Sustainability” Consolidated Research Group. Main researcher in various projects funded under competitive calls by regional, national and European authorities. Member of the European Environmental Law Forum Advisory Board and of the Advisory Board of the Network on Business, Conflict and Human Rights. He has participated in numerous national and international conferences and has given lectures, courses and seminars. He has coordinated numerous academic activities, including the VII National Environmental Law Conference (Tarragona, 2009) and the XII Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (Tarragona, 2014).

Dra. Susana Borrás Pentinat

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Senior Lecturer of Public International Law at URV. Main areas of teaching and research are Public International Law and International and EU Environmental Law. She has participated in various national and international competitive research projects in these areas. Member of the Consolidated Research Group on “Environmental Law, Immigration and Local Government” (CEDAT). Research fellow at Committee on Challenges of Modern Society (NATO/CCMS). Visiting researcher at Max Planck Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Center of International Environmental Law in Washington and Centre de Recherche at The Hague Academy of International Law and International Relations. Visiting Professor at Universities Federal de Santa Catarina, Estadual de Londrina, Pontificia Universidade Católica de Paraná and Autonoma de Bucaramanga. Member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law and the European Society of International Law.

Dra. Teresa Fajardo del Castillo

〉〉 Publications

Associate Professor of Public International Law and EU Law at the Universidad de Granada. Her main areas of teaching and research are International Law, EU Law, EU and International Environmental Law, EU and International Migration Law. She has participated in the research project of the 7th Framework Program of research of the European Commission EFFACE on the protection of the environment through criminal law and the problems of application of European environmental law (2012-2016). She has made different reports for the European Commission and the European Parliament on this subject. She has spent stages at the Legal Service of the European Commission and has been a visiting researcher at the universities of Florence, Brussels, Geneva, King’s College of London and Cambridge. Vice-Dean, Faculty of Law of the University of Granada, (2008- 2012), Deputy Director, Centre for Cooperation to Development, University of Granada (2004/2005).   

Mr. Pol Pallàs Secall

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Ph.D. student at the UB Faculty of Law with an FPI grant of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. His research focuses on the law of international and European watercourses and its relationship with other environmental legal domains, such as biodiversity protection.