Patricia Wouters
Prof. Dr. Patricia Wouters (PhD, international law, University of Geneva, Graduate Institute of Higher Education; DES, Geneva Graduate Institute of Higher Education; LLM, University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall; LLB, BA, University of Ottawa, Canada; visiting research fellow, Max Planck Institute for Public and Comparative International Law, Heidelberg, Germany)
Patricia leads an inter/multi-disciplinary team of water law, policy and science experts at the University of Dundee, Scotland. Professor Wouters established the graduate water law programme at Dundee in 1996 and has worked since then to build the capacity and range of expertise in the unit to its current research team comprised of experts in three areas of water law (international water law; national water law; and regulation of water services) and three areas of water science (river catchment hydrology; sustainable flooding; and climate change). The Dundee UNESCO IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science is the first UNESCO Centre in the UK and the first of its kind in the world.
Professor Wouters (Canadian and Belgian national) began her university studies at the University of Ottawa (Canada), where she completed a BA (gold medalist) and LLB (cum laude). Following close to a decade in legal practice (Alberta, Canada), Pat pursued graduate studies (in law) at Berkeley, California (on a competitive scholarship award), where she completed an LLM (comparative constitutional law). From there, she continued her graduate studies, moving to Switzerland (with an international scholarship) to study at the Graduate Institute of International Studies / University of Geneva (public international law, with a focus on water law). During her PhD research work, Pat was invited to be a visiting Research Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany) where she completed her PhD dissertation (the rules of international law that govern global transboundary water resources). From Heidelberg, Pat was recruited to Dundee where she established the graduate programme in water law and policy (1996). Since then, Dundee has established an international reputation in the area of water law and policy.
Pat has published extensively and presented her work around the world, providing expert advice on water law and policy to public and private sectors, multilateral and bilateral agencies and regional development banks and UN bodies. Prof. Wouters serves on the International Advisory Committee for the United Nations University Institute of Water Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH); is a member of the Global Water Partnership Technical Experts Committee (GWP-TEC); a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water Security (WEF-GAC); a member of the SUEZ Foresight Advisory Committee; co-chair of the Legal Experts Group of the World Water Assessment Programme responsible for the World Water Development Report (UN-WWAP). She has provided expert advice on national and global water security issues to the UK government and has been involved in high-level diplomatic meetings on regional water security (the Abu-Dhabi talks; Beirut talks) and continues to advise national governments and public policy bodies on transboundary water security issues. She has just been named the IUCN Academy of International Environmental Law Distinguished Scholar (2011) and appointed as an expert at Xiamen Law School in China, where she will have a 3-year joint appointment as Research Scholar.
Professor Wouters current research focuses on the rule of law (in international law) and how it influences regional peace and security through its normative framework governing the world’s transboundary waters.
Pat now seeks to fully implement the “Water Law, Water Leaders” programme with the objective to develop a new generation of “local water leaders”, working closely with the Dundee team, its Global Faculty of experts and an active graduate research team from around the world.
