Founding Affiliates

Sergei Vinogradov (LLB, PhD Moscow State University) is a Visiting Professor of the International Water Law Academy at the China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies (CIBOS) of Wuhan University. He has extensive academic and practical experience in the field of public international law, specialising in the areas of natural resources, law of the sea and protection of the environment. 

For close to ten years Dr Vinogradov has been involved in teaching various courses at CIBOS covering a broad range of topics, from the law of international watercourses to transnational environmental regulation of energy and natural resources exploration and production.

Since 1996 he has been working at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee (Scotland, UK). During his academic career he also taught in various post-graduate programmes, including such universities as Oxford, Leuven, Kazakh National, Moscow State and MGIMO universities.

Dr Vinogradov published extensively on a wide array of international legal issues, including transboundary water resources, protection of the marine environment, cross-border energy infrastructure, petroleum exploration and production, legal regime of the Arctic and Antarctic. His most recent publications include:

'Reframing the transboundary water discourse: contextualized international law in practice’ (2020) 29 Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law 3 (with Patricia Wouters)

'Transboundary Water Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Neighbouring States: Legal and Institutional Frameworks', in Research Handbook on International Water Law (S. McCaffrey, C. Leb & R. Denoon eds., Edward Elgar Pub, 2018)

'Arctic Hydrocarbon Exploration & Production: Evaluating the Legal Regime for Offshore Accidental Pollution Liability', Arctic Yearbook 2018-Arctic Development in Theory & In Practice (2019) (with S. Azubuike)

'International Legal Regime Governing HSE in Offshore Petroleum Operations in the North Sea', in “Encompassing the Future. Offshore Oil and Gas Operations: Environment,  Health and Safety Performance Management” (2017)

'Oil and Gas Pipelines in International Law', 56 German Yearbook of International Law, 2014 (with G. Mete)

'Sino-Russian Transboundary Waters: A Legal Perspective on Cooperation', Stockholm Paper, Institute for Security & Development Policy, 2013 (with Patricia Wouters)

Bionote

Having graduated with distinction from the Law Faculty of Moscow State University and obtained his PhD degree, Dr Vinogradov started his academic career as a Research Fellow at the Institute of State and Law of the USSR. Simultaneously, he taught public international law at the Law Faculty of the Moscow State University. In 1994-1996 he was an invited Visiting researcher at the Max-Planck Institute of Public International Law in Heidelberg (Germany). In 1996 he joined the graduate institute CEPMLP, University of Dundee, Scotland. Dr Vinogradov continues to teach post-graduate students and has supervised a large cohort of Master and PhD students, all in the field of public international law and natural resources regulation.

Dr Vinogradov served as a co-editor of the series of books "International and National Water Law and Policy" (Kluwer Law International) and of the "Water Law and Policy Series" (International Water Association Publishing); he is a member of the Editorial Board of the "Journal of Water Law".

Dr Vinogradov has a vast hands-on experience in applied international law. In 2020 he was elected to the Compliance Committee of the UNECE Protocol on Water and Health. For many years he has provided advice as a legal consultant to numerous international projects and activities under the auspices of various UN organizations including the UN Economic Commission for Europe, UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia, UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP/GEF, and the World Bank. He advised the Organization Security and Cooperation in Europe, the EU, the Mekong River Commission, International Fund for the Aral Sea and numerous national governments and development agencies operating mostly in developing and transition economy countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Central and South-East Asia, and Africa.

Dr Vinogradov participated in drafting and negotiating international agreements, such as the ECT Draft Transit Protocol, agreements on land-based pollution for the Black and Caspian seas, rivers Dniester, Kura, and other transboundary basins.