Law, Environment and Development Centre

Professor Philippe Cullet

Key information

Roles
School of Law Professor of Law School of Law LLM Environmental Law and MA Environmental Law & Sustainable Development Convenor School of Law PGT Programme Covenor School of Law MRES Law Convenor Law, Environment and Development Centre Chair, Centre of Law, Environment and Development SOAS South Asia Institute Member Centre for Water and Development Member Food Studies Centre Member Centre for Human Rights Law Member Centre for Law in Asia Member
Qualifications
LLB (Geneva) LLM (London) MA (SOAS) JSM, JSD (Stanford)
Building
Senate House
Office
S338
Email address
pc38@soas.ac.uk
Telephone number
+44 (0)20 7898 4651
Support hours
Wednesdays, 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Biography

Dr Philippe Cullet is Professor of international and environmental law. He came to teach at SOAS with qualifications in law and development studies from Geneva University, London (King’s College and SOAS) and Stanford University.

Philippe’s main areas of interest include environmental law, natural resources, human rights and the socio-economic aspects of intellectual property. He works on these at the international level and in India. His current research includes work on water law and governance with a particular focus on groundwater, drinking water, sanitation, inter-sectoral water allocation and institutional reforms in India; equity and justice in environmental law; biodiversity, including benefit sharing and biosafety; climate change; and justice, with a particular focus on environmental and water rights.

His monographs include Water Law, Poverty and Development – Water Law Reforms in India (Oxford University Press, 2009), Intellectual Property Protection and Sustainable Development (Butterworths, 2005) and Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law (Ashgate, 2003). His most recent edited books are Right to Sanitation in India – Critical Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2019) [with L. Bhullar & S. Koonan eds] and Research Handbook on Law, Environment and the Global South (Edward Elgar, 2019) [with S. Koonan eds].

Philippe co-convenes the two postgraduate degrees in environmental law in the School of Law, the LLM and the MA in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development. He also the convenor of the Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC) and is the Editor of the Law, Environment and Development Journal (LEAD Journal), a peer-reviewed academic journal published at lead-journal.org.

He is also a Visiting Professor at the National Law University, Delhi. He has been closely involved in policymaking. He was the Convenor of the Sub-group on Legal Issues Related to Groundwater Management and Regulation of the Planning Commission of India that prepared the draft Model Bill for the Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Groundwater, 2011. In 2015-2017, he was a member of the committee of the Government of India's Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation drafting the Draft National Water Framework Bill, 2016 (PDF) and the Groundwater (Sustainable Management) Bill, 2017 (earlier draft - PDF).

In 2019, he became a member of the Group of Experts of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to prepare the Madhya Pradesh Water Strategy, including drafting the Madhya Pradesh Right to Water (Conservation & Sustainable Use) Act, 2019. He is currently working on river rights and nature rights and is the chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) Task Force on rights of nature.

Research interests

Inaugural Lecture

PhD Supervision

Name Title
Naser Alsayed The Human-Nature-Animal Nexus: Analysing the Impact of Ecocentric Theories in an Anthropocentric World
Zainab Lokhandwala Indian Farmers and Rights over Biogenetic Resources towards Greater Food Sovereignty
Ms Roopa Madhav Beyond Judicial Veto: Public Trust Doctrine, Administrative Decision Making and Implementation of Mining Related Laws
Fara Mohammad Islamic financial law: a review of sustainability considerations and its impact
Gayathri Naik Water-related Subsidies and Groundwater Regulation in India: Social and Environmental Dimensions
Nate Palmer Harmony with nature: the evolving dimensions of access to water and land in Uttarakhand and Meghalaya
Faiza Rehman The Intersection of Corporate Accountability and Environmental Liability: Towards Promoting Sustainable Transnational Environmental Protection in the Extractive Industry
Mohammad Golam Sarwar Rights of Nature and the Climate Crisis in Bangladesh: The Role of Alternatives to Development
Ms Sharowat Shamin
Marta Simonetti Realising environmental rights in national and sub-national contexts. Global to local perspective, with focus on Indonesia.
KMS Tareq Efficacy of Legal Mechanisms to Recognise the Rights of Climate Change Displaced Persons (CCDPs): A Case Study in Bangladesh

Publications

Contact Philippe

Research