Jutta Brunnee

Professor Jutta Brunnée was born in Germany and earned a law degree and doctorate in law (summa cum laude) at Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, and an LL.M. from Dalhousie University (1987). Her teaching career began at McGill University’s Faculty of Law (1990-1995), from where she moved to the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia (1995-2000). In July 2000, Professor Brunnée joined the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law as the Metcalf Professor of Environmental Law, and has since served in additional capacities such as Associate Dean, Graduate Studies (2006; 2008; 2010-2014; 2017) and Interim Dean (2014).

Dean Brunnée’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of Public International Law, International Environmental Law and International Legal Theory. She has published extensively in each of these areas. Her current research agenda explores the role of international legality and legal practices in mediating between stability and change in international law. Dean Brunnée is co-author of International Climate Change Law (OUP 2017), which was awarded the American Society of International Law’s 2018 Certificate of Merit “in a specialized area of international law” and was recently translated into Korean, and of Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account (CUP 2010), which was awarded the American Society of International Law’s 2011 Certificate of Merit “for preeminent contribution to creative scholarship.” Dean Brunnée also is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (Oxford University Press, 2007).

In 1998-99, she was the “Scholar-in-Residence” in the Legal Bureau of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, advising, inter alia, on matters under the Biodiversity and Climate Change Conventions. From 2006 to 2016, she served on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013, and Associate of the Institut de Droit International in 2017. In 2019, she delivered a course on “Procedure and Substance in International Environmental Law” at The Hague Academy of International Law, published in the Academy's Collected Courses / Recueil des Cours series (2020). In 2020, Dean Brunnée was appointed University Professor, the University of Toronto’s highest and most distinguished academic rank.

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