Natasha Affolder

Natasha Affolder is a Professor and a former Associate Dean Research and International at the Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. She is a leading scholar in transnational environmental law whose research explores some of the most challenging and complex issues of our time. Her recent scholarship has sought to reveal and to challenge the marginalization of environmental law in legal practice and scholarship and to creatively expand the methods for studying environmental law and its global movements. She is the recipient of numerous awards including, most recently, the 2019 Richard Macrory Prize for the Best Article published in the Journal of Environmental Law.

A sought-after and frequent panelist, keynote speaker, and commentator, Professor Affolder has put her scholarly expertise to work as an advisor to indigenous communities, environment and development NGO’s, and governments on multiple continents. She was a lawyer in private practice in Boston, Massachusetts with the firms Hill & Barlow, and (what is now) DLA Piper. She also held a research associate position at Harvard Business School and consulted for Oxfam International, working to integrate gender and development law perspectives in the negotiations leading to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Prior to beginning her professional career in legal practice and academia, Dr. Affolder completed a Bachelor of Civil Law (First Class) and a doctorate in law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Research and Publications

To learn more about my research, please visit my PURE Research profile. You can also access my publications on the following sites: 

• Allard Research Commons / bepress Legal Repository Search (Open source publications only)
• Allard Research Portal (Comprehensive list of publications)
• SSRN (Social Science Research Network)
• HeinOnline

• Transnational Law
• Sustainable Development Law
• Legal Ethics and Professionalism
• International Business Transactions

Select Publications

	Natasha Affolder and Godwin Dzah “The Transnational Exchange of Law through Climate Change Litigation” in F. Sindico et al eds., Research Handbook on Climate Change Litigation Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2024 Online access Allard Law Research Commons (full text) SSRN (full text)
	Natasha Affolder “Transnational Climate Law” in Peer Zumbansen, ed., Handbook of Transnational Law Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021 Online Access (with full-text) Allard Research Commons (full-text) SSRN Paper
	Natasha Affolder “An Unknown Past, an Unequal Present, and an Uncertain Future: Transnational Environmental Law through Three Research Challenges” in Veerle Heyvaert & Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli, eds., Research Handbook on Transnational Environmental Law Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020 pp. 32-47 Online Access (with full-text)
	Natasha Affolder “Transnational Law as Unseen Law” in Peer Zumbansen, ed., The Many Lives of Transnational Law: Critical Engagements with Jessup's Bold Proposal Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020 pp. 364-385 Online Access (with full-text) Allard Research Commons SSRN Paper
	Natasha Affolder “Contagious Environmental Lawmaking” Full text: (2019) 31:2 J Envtl L 187-212 Allard Research Commons SSRN Paper
	Natasha Affolder “Transnational Environmental Law's Missing People” Full text: (2019) 8:3 Transnat'l Envtl L 463 - 488 Allard Research Commons SSRN Paper
	Natasha Affolder “Transnational Carbon Contracting: Why Law's Invisibility Matters” in A. Claire Cutler & Thomas Dietz, eds., The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract Abingdon: Routledge, 2017 pp. 215-236 UBC Library Location Online Access (with full-text) Allard Research Commons SSRN Paper