About the Speakers

Ambassador Beat NOBS PhD (UBC)

Ambassador, Head of International Affairs Division
Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscapes (SAEFL)

Beat Nobs studied History, English and Media Science at the University of Zurich and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He taught History and English in Switzerland, before embracing a diplomatic career that led him to Costa Rica, as the Secretary of the Swiss embassy and to Kenya, as the Deputy Head of Mission of the Swiss embassy. He also occupied a position of Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UNEP.

Since 1997 he has been at the Head of Swiss delegations at numerous international negotiations in the field of environment.

Juerg BALLY LLM (Basel)

Senior Scientific Officer, Federal Office of Justice
Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscapes (SAEFL)

Juerg Bally is a legal expert on constitutional questions. He studied Law at the University of Basel, and practised as an attorney and notary in Switzerland. He currently works at the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape as a Senior Scientific Officer of the Legal Affairs Division, where he is responsible for civil environmental liability, the legal aspects of new economic instruments and of international environmental law.

He regularly participates in international multilateral meetings and has been actively involved in the elaboration of the 1999 Basel Protocol on liability and compensation for damage resulting from transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, and in the elaboration of the provision on liability and redress (Art. 27) in the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety.

He is the Vice-Chairman of the group of experts of the Convention on the protection and use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes (UN/ECE) on civil liability, promoting an appropriate international regime on civil liability for damage caused by hazardous activities within the scope of the Convention.

Philippe CULLET LLM, MA, JSD (Stanford)

Programme Director, IELRC
Lecturer in International and Comparative Environmental Law, SOAS

Philippe Cullet is a law researcher and teacher working in London and Geneva. He studied law at the University of Geneva, the University of London and Stanford University and currently is a Lecturer in international and comparative environmental law at the School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London. He is also a Research Programme Director at the International Environmental Law Research Centre in Geneva. He has published widely in the fields of public international law, international environmental law, comparative environmental law and intellectual property rights. His areas of specialization are India and East Africa.

Usha RAMANATHAN LLM, PhD (Del)

Programme Director for India, IELRC
Lecturer in Law, Indian Law Institute

Usha Ramanathan is a law researcher and teacher. She studied law at Madras University and at the University of Delhi.

She currently teaches at the Indian Law Institute and conducts training programmes at NIPPCID in New Delhi.

Her research interests include environmental law and policy, human rights, children rights, women rights, labour law, marginal communities and the law, and torts. She has devoted her attention to a number of specific issues such as the Bhopal gas disaster, the Narmada valley dams or slum eviction in Delhi.