PhD Thesis
 

Title: “How to improve the protection of the climate system during armed conflicts”

PhD Supervisor : Andrew Clapham

The thesis explores how the Earth’s climate system can be protected during armed conflicts by interpreting the law of armed conflicts from an environmental perspective, particularly the UN Climate Change regime.
 

Profile
 

Romina is a PhD Candidate in International Law and a former Teaching Assistant and Tutor at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Her doctoral research focuses on the protection of the Earth’s climate system during armed conflicts. 

Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Romina graduated as a lawyer at the University of Buenos Aires, and later got a Master’s degree in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute. Besides, she was an assistant to Mrs Conception Escobar Hernández at the UN International Law Commission and an intern at the Eurasia Region in Geneva Call. Finally, during several years, she law clerked at a federal criminal court in Argentina, and lectured on public international law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law at the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires.
 

 Areas of expertise
 

• Public International Law
• International humanitarian law
• International Environmental Law and Climate Change
• International Criminal Law and Transitional Justice
   

Academic Work experience
 

Teaching experience

• Lectured PIL, IHL and ICL for undergraduate students at the UBA.
• Teaching Assistant for the Applied Research Project Program (Environmental and Sustainable Track) assigned to the ‘Environmental and Sustainability Track’ of the Applied Research Projects Programme at the IHEID.

Research Interests
 

• The use of armed force and climate change
• IHL and climate change
• Environmental peacebuilding
• Transitional justice and the environment
• Ecocide
   

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS AND WORKS
 

• ‘The silence of the lambs and the wartime GHGs emissions’, in Opinio Iuris, 26.03.2024, available at: http://opiniojuris.org/2024/03/26/the-silence-of-the-lambs-and-the-wartime-ghgs-emissions/
• ICRC Review, 105 (923), 1071–1091., “IHL in the era of climate change: The application of the UN climate change regime to belligerent occupations”. Available at: https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/ihl-in-the-era-of-climate-change-923
• “To report or not to report GHG emissions in occupied territories. A practical approach for having a more accurate world count of global GHG emissions.” In Ejil Talk!, 12.09. 2023, available at: https://www.ejiltalk.org/to-report-or-not-to-report-ghg-emissions-in-occupied-territories-a-practical-approach-for-having-a-more-accurate-world-count-of-global-ghg-emissions/ 
• Armed Groups and International Law Blog, “The respect and implementation of the right to the truth by armed non-state actors”, (2022) available at: https://www.armedgroups-internationallaw.org/2022/09/26/the-respect-and-implementation-of-the-right-to-truth-by-armed-non-state-actors/
   

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES
 

• Teaching Assistant at the MINT Program, Geneva Graduate Institute. 
• Former Lecturer of public international law, International humanitarian law and international criminal law at the School of law of the University of Buenos Aires.