PhD ad eundem (Cantab), DPhil (Oxon), MEM (Yale), BCL & LLB (McGill), BA Hons (Carl/UVic) FRSC FRSA WIJA 

Professor Dr Dr Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger is a world-leading scholar and jurist in the field of sustainable development law and governance, and holds the Chair in Sustainable Development Law and Policy at the University of Cambridge, directing the Democratising Education for Global Sustainability and Justice (DemEd Global) programme as law fellow at Lucy Cavendish College. Further, as senior director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), executive secretary of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and chair of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Biodiversity Law and Governance Initiative, she lectures and leads international law partnerships on climate and biodiversity law and governance, natural resources stewardship, future generations rights, and sustainable trade, investment and financial instruments. She has published over 29 books and over 180 papers in five languages, edits a series of volumes on international treaties and sustainability with Cambridge University Press, and serves on editorial/review boards of five international law journals, having co-founded three. Notable recent books include Sustainable Development Law: Principles, Practices and Prospects (OUP 2025), Investment Law and Sustainable Development (EE 2025), Handbook on Climate Law and Governance (Routledge 2025), and Crafting Trade and Investment Accords for Sustainable Development (OUP 2021).

Prof Cordonier Segger has over 40 years as a trail-blazer on sustainable development, having travelled at 16, mainly by land, from Canada to Chile and up to Rio de Janeiro for the 1992 Earth Summit, raising awareness and co-leading UNCED and UNEP youth engagement. Former senior legal expert to the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), also senior advisor and general counsel to treaty bodies and the UN, she contributed to drafting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2012 – 2015, and leads the International Law on Sustainable Development Partnership under the UN ECOSOC. She currently serves as founding President of the Sustainable Development Governance and Law Association (SDGLA), Vice-President of the International Law Association (ILA) of Canada, councillor of the World Future Council, and chairs of ILA’s global experts commission on the SDGs and the post-2030 agenda. Elected to the Royal Society of Canada, and laureate of the Weeramantry International Justice Award (WIJA) among other honours, she is a fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, the Centre for Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Governance, Cambridge Global Challenge and the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, and also teaches law in the University of Victoria, McGill University, Yale University and JSW Law School in Bhutan.