Staff profile

Professor Petra Minnerop is the Academic Lead of Durham University for UNFCCC engagement and climate change and the founder and current Director of the Durham Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy as well as Co-Director of the Global Policy Institute. 

She is principal investigator of an ESRC IAA funded project on Building capacity to enhancing compliance - (domestic legal) implementation of the Paris Agreement and principal investigator of a follow-on project on Implementing Regulations for the Ugandan Climate Change Act, funded by the ESRC IAA and the Research Impact Fund. From May 2022 to the end of March 2023 she is principal investigator for a Strategic Priorities Fund Project (SPF, £66,519.21) that serves to engage University-wide and Law School Resesarch with the UNFCCC processes.

Petra was principal investigator of a BEIS/Energy Transition Council project on Legal Support for Raising Ambition under the Paris Agreement, funded by the Rockefeller foundation (£61,644.75), until May 2022. The project supported developing countries in the development of their domestic legal frameworks under the Paris Agreement. 

She was the principal investigator of a project on Challenges to a Sustainable Recovery: International Law, Climate Change and Public Health, funded by the Society of Legal Scholars. The project encompassed an international conference that was held as a hybrid event in September 2021 and the publication of a Special Issue of Global Policy with the contributions of speakers (forthcoming 2022). She was the co-investigator of the COP26 International Climate Change Network Grant, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In the run up to COP26, she co-organised with Prof Oral and Prof Voigt the monthly lecture series on The Road to COP 26/CMA 3 Preparatory Lectures, the recordings of the lectures are available here:

The Road to COP 26/CMA 3 Preparatory Lecture Series - YouTube

Prior to joining Durham Law School, Petra has held academic positions at the Universities of Dundee, Munich and Göttingen, and worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, and at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law, Heidelberg. She is a member of the Bar in Germany. She is Visiting Professor at the Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia.

She studied at the Universities of Göttingen and Newcastle-upon-Tyne and holds a PhD in public international law, completed under the supervision of Professor Dr Georg Nolte (summa cum laude), awarded with the prize for the best PhD thesis of the University of Göttingen.

Petra worked for the German Foreign Office, Berlin, and for the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, New York. She has given advice to the German Federal Environmental Agency on liability in international environmental law and regularly works as an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Petra serves as a member of the editorial board of the book series Global Energy Law and Policy (Hart publishing). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

She is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL), of the Specialist Group on Climate Change and a member of Society of Legal Scholars, the Women’s Climate and Energy Law Network (WCELN), the European Society of International Law and the American Society of International Law. 

Petra is the founder of the International Research Advisory Board (IRAB) that provides needs-based and research-led capacity building for partner countries in the Global South on the basis of trans-disciplinary research and academic partnerships. A link to the website is available here

https://irab.webspace.durham.ac.uk/

Research Expertise

Petra has published widely on liability in international environmental law, climate protection agreements, human rights law, the classification/status of states under international law and on EU citizenship. Petra has co-edited several books and edited a special thematic Volume of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law on International Law of Development with Rüdiger Wolfrum and Frauke Lachenmann, published in 2019, with Oxford University Press. Her current interdisciplinary research project focuses on climate change law, human rights law and attribution science, in close collaboration with Friederike Otto and Rupert Stuart-Smith. She works on re-thinking and applying legal concepts in the light of attribution science.

She is also working on issues of EU citizenship and mitigating the consequences of ‘Brexit’ through international law and is one of the co-authors of the report on The Feasibility of Associate EU Citizenship for UK Citizens post-Brexit, funded by the European Parliament. She is now editing a book on EU Citizenship as institutionalised Membership with Volker Roeben and Jukka Snell, under contract with Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2021.

Selected Grants

May 2022-March 2023: Principle Investigator, Sustainable Development Research Centre and UNFCCC engagement activities, funded by Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF), (£66,619.21)

September 2021- May 2022: Principal Investigator for Legal Support for Enhancing Ambition under the Paris Agreement, funded by the Rockefeler Foundation & Energy Transition Council (£61,644.75)

2021: Principal Investigator for ESRC IAA funded grant on Building Capacity to Enhancing Compliance with (domestic legal) Implementation of the Paris Agreement (£14,656.64).

2019: Additional Funding from Research and Innovation Services, University of Dundee for Dundee Climate Conference

2019: Research Fellow, funded by the European Commission (£2,000) Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg

2018: Co-Investigator, Workshop on Union Citizenship in the time of Brexit, co-funded by the European Parliament and the Morgan Academy, Swansea (£10,000).

2016-2017: Co-Investigator, European Parliament, project on The Feasibility of Associate Union Citizenship post-Brexit (£15,000).

Presentations

2022: From International Law on Climate Change to Power Purchase Agreements, presentation at Lao PDR 1st Energy Modelling Workshop, with FCDO and Lao PDR government

2022: CIL (NUS) - UNFCCC Worskhop - What did COP26 mean for the Asia Pacific Region and what to expect next? Moderation (Global Stockake) link to the programme:https://cil.nus.edu.sg/event/cil-unfccc-workshop-on-what-did-cop-26-mean-for-the-asia-pacific-region-and-what-to-expect-next/

2022: General Causation, Specific Causation and Attribution in the context of Climate Change (Litigation), Lecture, Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia

2022: Normative Dimensions of Attribution Science and the Law, University of Graz/University of Fribourg

2022: Environmental Law Conference 2022, organised by Student Societies: DUELS (Durham), NUS Bachelor of Environmental Studies, Westminster Environmental Society, Execter Be the Change, KCL Environmental Law & Regulation Society, Cambridge Envirionmental Consulting Society

2021: Distinguished Speakers Address, ACCEL 2021, Sydney Law School https://law-events.sydney.edu.au/events/accel-2021-distinguished-speaker-address-can-climate-litigation-save-the-planet-the-role-of-climate-attribution-science see the podcast at https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/news-and-events/podcasts.html

2021: Convener of post-COP26 roundtable (final part of the preparatory Lecture Series on the Road to COP26) with Prof Oral (UN ILC, Director of CIL/NUS) and Prof Voigt (Co-Chair of the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee, Chair of IUCN WCEL): After COP, Before COP https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/global-policy/about-us/events/after-cop-before-cop-/

2021: Climate Risk Summit, COP26 Universities Network, Presentation on 'Attributon Sciene in the Law' during the Opening Panel on 'Risks and Attribution of Extremes'

2021: Global Climate and Health Alliance: Care4Climate Webinar, presentation on 'Health and Climate Change as Legal & Economic Issues'

2021: Presentation to Plenary during the SLS Annual Conference, on 'Law Schools in the context of climate change and pandemics'. 

2021: ClimateExpo (COP 26 Universities Network Conference) ‘Defining success at COP26 / CMA 3 and wrapping up outstanding issues of the Paris Rulebook’

2021: The Paris Agreement Rulebook: Adding the Glasgow Chapter to the Katowice Climate Package’, Road to COP 26 Preparatory Lecture Series (co-organised by Nilufer Oral CIL/NUS, Petra Minnerop Durham Law School and Christina Voigt IUCN/WCEL) 

2021: Presentation on 'Regional and Legal Perspectives (focusing on the role of legal and regulatory instruments', part of roundtable on 'Just and Healthy Transition', Academy of Medical Sciences and Royal Society project on climate change and health.

2021: Presentation on 'The Role of International Law on Climate Change and the function of the Meeting of Parties under the Paris Agreement', Conference on 'The Transition to Net-Zero in the North of England', Durham Energy Institute Joint Conference with North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers

2020: Guest Lecture, Chapman University Fowler School of Law, USA, 'Climate Change Causation. (Some European) Litigation and the quest for a coherent causal analysis'

2019: Presentation to School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, ‘Climate Change and the Law’

2019: Principal Investigator of conference project and convenor of the 1^st interdisciplinary international Dundee Climate Conference with integrated masterclass, ‘Elements of a ‘European’, ‘International’, ‘Global’ Climate Consensus after Paris?’, funded by the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS), Presentation on ‘Elements of a European Consensus under the European Convention on Human Rights’

See the following links for media/press for the Dundee Climate Conference:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-49481811

2. https://envirotecmagazine.com/2019/08/27/dundee-to-host-conference-on-climate-change-science-and-law/

2019: Annual Conference of the Society of Legal Scholars, Preston, presentation on ‘The “European Consensus” – a safety net for climate action under the European Convention on Human Rights’

2019: Third Dundee Energy Forum, Dundee, presentation on ‘Making law in CMA decisions: benefits, risks and potential of taking the Paris Agreement forward’

2018: ISSR Forum, School of Social Sciences, Discovery Centre Dundee, Dundee, presentation on ‘International law on nationality, citizenship and continuity’

2018: Swansea University and Morgan Academy, Swansea, co-convenor (with Prof Volker Röben, Prof Jukka Snell) workshop on ‘Union citizenship in the time of Brexit’, presentation on ‘International Law and continuity of EU Citizenship’

2017: European Parliament and Article 50 task force of the European Commission, Brussels, presentation of Research Report on ‘The Feasibility of Associate Union Citizenship post-Brexit’

2005: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Convenor and speaker, international conference on ‘International Environmental Law’, presentation on ‘Elements of Coherency in the Conception of International Environmental Liability Law’, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg

2003: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, co-convenor (with Silja Vöneky, Volker Röben, Christian Walter) and speaker, conference on ‘Terrorism as a Challenge for National and International Law: Security versus Liberty?’, presentation on ‘Legal Status of State Sponsors of Terrorism in US Law’

Teaching Areas

In 2020/21:

Public International Law

International Law on Climate Change

Previously:

Public International Law

International Law on Climate Change

UN Human Rights Law

Global Human Rights Law

Law of the European Union

Legal Research Skills

English Law of Equity and Trusts

Contract Law

• Public International Law
• International Law on Climate Change
• International Environmental Law
• Intersection of Science and Climate Law and Policy
• Human Rights Law
• Citizenship Rights in International and EU Law

• Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences
• Durham Centre for Law and Philosophy

• Blog - Expectations for COP26: Why Law Matters for Ambition
• Insights from COP26

• 2022: Visiting Professor, Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia:
• 2021: Article in Nature on interdisciplinary research with Fredi Otto and Rupert Stuart-Smith: Article that discusses Dr Otto's and my interdisciplinary research on climate science and law ;
• 2021: Article on climate science and law in Scientific American:
• 2021: Best science in courts, Irish Legal News: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate change and litigation, Rinnovabili (in Italian): Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate Change in the Courts, article in New Scientist:
• 2021: Climate science and law, UPI: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate science in courts: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate Science in courts, Anthropocene Magazine: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate science in courts, Cumhuriyet (in Turkish): Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate science in courts, Infobae (in Spanish): Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Climate Science in litigation, in Polish: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Coverage in BBC on climate science in courts: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Coverage of interdisciplinary work on climate litigation in CarbonBrief: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Fellow of Durham Energy Institute:
• 2021: Guardian Article on causation and attribution study: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Legal Action against emitters, DeSmog.com: Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2021: Science and law in the courts, EcoDebate (in Portuguese): Discussion of Research on Climate Science and Law
• 2020: Member and Management Board Member of Durham University’s Institute of Hazard, Risk & Resilience:
• 2020: Founding Director, International Research Advisory Board IRAB: International Research Network that provides long-term capacity building through research and academic partnerships
• 2020: Law School Academic Achievement Award: Prize for outstanding academic performance
• 2020: Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy:
• 2004: Prize for the best PhD thesis, University of Göttingen: Prize awared for PhD thesis, including financial contribution to publication as book in the Max Planck Series on Public International Law

Authored book

• Minnerop, Petra (2012). Paria-Staaten im Voelkerrecht? (Paria States in International Law?). Springer.
• Minnerop, Petra (2004). Paria-Staaten im Voelkerrecht? (Pariah States in International Law?). Springer.

Chapter in book

• Minnerop, Petra (2021). Article VIII WTO Agreement, Status of the WTO. In Institutions and Dispute Settlement. Stoll, Peter T. & Hestermeyer, Holger Brill Academic Publishers.
• Minnerop, Petra & Langenfeld, Christine (2005). Environmental Liability Provisions in International Law. In Environmental Liability in International Law - Towards a Coherent Conception. Wolfrum, Ruediger, Langenfeld, Christine & Minnerop, Petra Erich Schmidt. 159-210.
• Minnerop, Petra (2018). Climate Protection Agreements. In Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, online. Minnerop, Petra, Wolfrum Ruediger & Lachenmann, Frauke Oxford University Press. e2207.
• Minnerop, Petra & Roht-Ariaza, Naomi (2018). Solidarity Rights in Development, Peace, Environment, and Humanitarian Assistance. In Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Minnerop, Petra, Wolfrum, Ruediger & Lachenmann, Frauke Oxford University Press, online. e1470.
• Minnerop, Petra & Roht-Ariaza, Naomi (2019). Solidarity Rights in Development, Peace, Environment and Humanitarian Assistance. In International Law of Development. Minnerop, Petra, Wolfrum, Ruediger & Lachenmann, Frauke Oxford University Press. 3: 825-837 (and online OPIL.ouplaw.com).
• Minnerop, Petra (2020). The Legal Effect of the ‘Paris Rulebook’ under the Doctrine of Treaty Interpretation. In Global Energy in Transition: Towards rules-based multilateral governance of generation, markets and investment. Cameron, Peter Mu, Xiaoyi & Roeben, Volker
• Minnerop, Petra (2019). Climate Protection Agreements. In International Development Law: The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Minnerop, Petra, Wolfrum, Ruediger & Lachenmann, Frauke Oxford University Press. 205-215 (and online OPIL.ouplaw.com).
• Minnerop, Petra (2006). Article VIII WTO Agreement. In Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. Wolfrum, Ruediger, Stoll, Peter T. & Kaiser, Karen Kluwer: The Hague. 1.
• Minnerop, Petra (2005). European Community Law. In Environmental Liability in International Law - Towards a Coherent Conception. Wolfrum, Ruediger,, Langenfeld, Christine & Minnerop, Petra Erich Schmidt: Berlin. 159-210.
• Minnerop, Petra (2005). Supplementary State Liability in European Law. In Environmental Liability in International Law - Towards a Coherent Conception. Wolfrum, Ruediger, Langenfeld, Christine & Minnerop, Petra Erich Schmidt, Berlin. 211-222.
• Minnerop, Petra & Wolfrum, Ruediger (2005). Elements of Coherency in the conception of International Environmental Liability Law. In Environmental Liability in International Law - Towards a Coherent Conception. Wolfrum, Ruediger, Langenfeld, Christine & Minnerop, Petra Erich Schmidt. 495-512.
• Minnerop, Petra (2004). Legal Status of State Sponsors of Terrorism in US Law. In Walter, Christian, Roeben, Volker & Voeneky, Silja Springer: Berlin 2004. 733-786.

Edited book

• Minnerop, Petra, Roeben, Volker & Snell, Jukka (2021). EU Citizenship as Institutional Membership. Oxford University Press.
• Oellers-Frahm, Karin, Minnerop, Petra, Schorkopf, Frank & Walter, Christian (2008). World Court Digest 2001-2005. Kluwer, Berlin.
• Minnerop, Petra Wolfrum, Ruediger & Lachenmann, Frauke (2019). Internal Development Law. Oxford University Press.
• Wolfrum, Ruediger, Langenfeld, Christine & Minnerop, Petra (2005). Environmental Liability in International Law - Towards a Coherent Conception?. Erich Schmidt: Berlin 2005.

Journal Article

• Otto, Friederike E L, Minnerop, Petra, Raju, Emmanuel, Harrington, Luke J, Stuart-Smith, Rupert F, Boyd, Emily, James, Rachel, Jones, Richard & Lauta, Kristian C (2022). Causality and the fate of climate litigation: The Role of the social Superstructure Narrative. Global Policy
• Minnerop, Petra (2022). European Consensus as Integrative Doctrine of Treaty Interpretation: Joining Climate Science and International Law under the European Convention on Human Rights. Berkeley Journal of International Law
• Minnerop, Petra (2022). The Advance Interference-Like Effect of Climate Targets: Fundamental Rights, Intergenerational Equity and the German Federal Constitutional Court. Journal of Environmental Law 34(1): 135-162.
• Stuart-Smith, Rupert F., Otto, Friederike E.L., Saad, Aisha I., Lisi, Gaia, Minnerop, Petra, Cedervall, Kristian, van Zwieten, Kristin & Wetzer, Thom (2021). Filling the evidentiary gap in climate litigation. Nature Climate Change 11: 651-655.
• Minnerop, Petra & Rostgaard, Ida (2021). In Search of a Fair Share: Article 112 Norwegian Constitution, International Law and an Emerging Inter-Jurisdictional Discourse in Climate Litigation. Fordham International Law Journal 44.
• Minnerop, Petra (2020). The First German Climate Case. Environmental Law Review 22: 215-226.
• Minnerop, Petra (2001). German Constitutional Law Cases (2001). European Public Law 7: 549-563.
• Minnerop, Petra & Otto, Friederike EL (2020). Climate Change and Causation: Joining Law and Climate Science on the basis of Formal Logic. Buffalo Environmental Law Journal 27: 49-86.
• Minnerop, Petra (2019). Integrating the ‘duty of care’ under the European Convention on Human Rights and the science and law of climate change: the decision of the Hague Court of Appeal in the Urgenda case. Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law 37: 450-474.
• Roeben, Volker, Minnerop, Petra, Snell, Jukka & Telles, Pedro (2018). Revisiting Union Citizenship from a Fundamental Rights perspective in the time of Brexit. European Human Rights Law Review 5: 450-473.
• Minnerop, Petra (2018). Taking the Paris Agreement Forward: Continuous Strategic Decision-making on Climate Action by the Meeting of the Parties. Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Online 21 (2018)(1): 124-167.
• Minnerop, Petra & Roeben, Volker (2018). Continuity as the rule, not the exception: How the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties protects against retroactivity of ‘Brexit’. European Human Rights Law Review 5: 474-489.
• Minnerop, Petra (2018). Taking the Paris Agreement forward: Continuous strategic decision-making on Climate Action by the Meeting of the Parties. Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 21: 124-167.
• Minnerop, Petra (2004). German Constitutional Law Cases. European Public Law 10: 221-236.
• Minnerop, Petra & Schorkopf, Frank (2004). The German University Reform. The Annual of German & European Law 1.
• Minnerop, Petra (2003). The Classification of States and the Creation of Status within the International Community. Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 7: 79-182.
• Minnerop, Petra (2002). Rogue States - States Sponsoring Terrorism. German Law Journal

Report

• Stuart-Smith, Rupert, Saad, Aisha, Otto, Friederike, Lisil, Gaia, Lauta, Kristian, Minnerop, Petra & Wetzer, Thom (2021). Attribution science and litigation: facilitating effective legal arguments and strategies to manage climate change damages. Oxford, Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, Environmental Change Institute, & Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
• Roeben, Volker, Snell, Jukka, Minnerop, Petra, Telles, Pedro & Bush, Keith (2017). The Feasibility of Associate EU Citizenship for UK Citizens Post-Brexit.