David Freestone

David Freestone joined the Law School in January 2009, after retiring from The World Bank, where he had served as senior adviser and as deputy general counsel, and for eight years was chief counsel and head of the Environment and International Law Group. He is also senior adviser to the USA Multilateral Office of the International Union of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). He is a visiting professor at the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies and on the List of Experts in Environmental Law appointed by the Secretary-General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. 

Prior to joining The World Bank in 1996, he held a faculty chair in international law at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, where he is still an honorary professor. He has written widely on international environmental law and law of the Sea and is the founding editor of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (now in its 24th year) and a member of the editorial boards of the British Yearbook of International Law, International Yearbook of Environmental Law, and European Yearbook of Environmental Law. He is General Editor of a new monograph Series Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development, published by Martinus Nijhoff. He is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Haub Gold Medal for Environmental Law.

He is currently editing, with Dr. Charlotte Streck “Legal Aspects of Carbon Trading: Kyoto, Bali and beyond”, to be published by OUP in 2009. His recent books include: The Law of the Sea: Progress and Prospects (ed. with Richard Barnes and David Ong, Oxford, 2006); Legal Aspects of Implementing the Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms: Making Kyoto Work (ed. with Charlotte Streck, Oxford, 2005); Legislating for Sustainable Fisheries (with W. Edeson and E. Gudmundsdottir, World Bank, 2001; International Law and Sustainable Development: Past Achievements and Future Challenges (ed. with Alan Boyle, Oxford, 1999).

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