Global Affiliates

Dr. Christina Leb is an Affiliate Member of our Academy. She currently also serves as member of the Governing Board of the Center for Water Law, Policy and Science of the University of Dundee and is a Research Fellow at the Platform for International Water Law of the University of Geneva.

Christina has 20 years of experience as researcher, student and practitioner of transboundary freshwater governance and international water law. Her publications include:

 “Data Innovations for Transboundary Freshwater Resources Management: Are Obligations Related to Information Exchange Still Needed?”, International Water Law, Issue 4.4 (Brill) 2019

Research Handbook on International Water Law, with S. McCaffrey and R. Denoon (eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2019

Cooperation in the Law of Transboundary Water Resources, Cambridge University Press, 2013

“The Water Security Paradox and International Law: Securitisation as an Obstacle to Achieving Water Security and the Role of Law in De-Securitising the World’s Most Precious Resource”, with P. Wouters, in B. A. Lankford, K. Bakker, M. Zeitoun, and D. Conway (eds.), Water Security: Principles, Perspectives and Practices, Earthscan Publications, 2013

International Law and Freshwater: The Multiple Challenges, with L. Boisson de Chazournes and M. Tignino (eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2012

Bionote

Christina works as Senior Counsel at the Environment and International Law Department of the World Bank. Prior to this position, she worked as Senior Water Resources Specialist at the Water Global Practice of the World Bank. In this position she served among others as the Program Manager of the Central Asia Energy and Water Development Program and Thematic Focal Point for Transboundary Waters at the global level.

She has extensive experience advising on international water law and public international law related questions as well as working on technical and institutional problems in the water sector having worked on assignments and investment projects related to water resources management, water law reform, irrigation development, climate change adaptation and transboundary water governance in the South Asia, Central Asia and Africa regions. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked as researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva.

She has been an invited guest lecturer at Tsinghua University (China), IIT Guwahati (India), Oxford University (UK), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Austria), University of Technology of New South Wales (Australia), and the Summer School of the International Law Commission, and currently co-teaches a course on Water Security and Global Health at the University of Maryland (US).

She holds a doctorate in public international law from the University of Geneva, a M.A. in international relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, and a law degree from the Karl Franzens University of Graz, Austria.