Meet the team
Liliana Lizarazo-Rodríguez is a research professor at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and principal investigator of the ERC project Curiae Virides.
Liliana studied Law at the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and at the UNED (Spain). She also studied Financial Law at the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and Development Studies and Public Administration and Management at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Liliana obtained her PhD at the Department of Interdisciplinary Study of Law, Private Law and Business Law of the University of Ghent (Belgium).
Liliana is an expert in the areas of Business & Human Rights, law and sustainable development, international economic law and constitutional and judicial adjudication. She is also assistant professor at the Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp (Belgium).
You find her publications on Orcid and ResearchGate.
Contact: Liliana.Lizarazo.Rodriguez@vub.be
Liliana Lizarazo-Rodríguez
Principal Investigator
Daniel Alejo is an interdisciplinary PhD Researcher in the Curiae Virides project. He holds a Masters in Development Studies from University of Rome and a Masters of Science in Development and Globalization from the University of Antwerp.
Daniel co-authored a forthcoming publication in the Journal of Political Ecology and authored a Latin American briefing paper for Society for International Development.
In his research, he aims to analyze the socio-legal context and role of stakeholders and ecocentric networks in the transformation of human rights litigations into ecocentric litigations. His research combines different theoretical approaches, the sociology of law, political ecology and ecological economics, and uses mixed-methods in the analysis of the empirical data.
He is interested in post-development ideas and socio-environmental justice movements. He also loves practicing and watching sports including football, tennis and CrossFit.
Contact: Daniel.Alejo@vub.be
Daniel Leguizamon Alejo
PhD Researcher
João Teixeira de Freitas is a PhD researcher of the Curiae Virides project, studying how transnational ecological conflicts turn into lawsuits and the role played by courts in this context.
João has a bachelor's degree in Law from the Portuguese Catholic University and a master's degree in Transnational Law from Católica Global School of Law / King's College London, where he researched the legal regulation of transnational corporate accountability for human rights abuses.
Before joining the Brussels School of Governance, João worked independently as a public affairs and communications consultant for several Brussels based projects.
His PhD research focuses on the theoretical (and empirical) foundations of value chain due diligence in transnational ecological conflicts.
Contact: Joao.De.Freitas@vub.be
João Teixeira de Freitas
PhD Researcher
Ludmila Cieszkowsky Elias
PhD Researcher
Ludmila (Milla) Cieszkowsky is a PhD researcher for the ERC Project Curiae Virides at VUB’s Brussels School of Governance. Prior to the VUB, Milla earned a master’s degree in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University and an LLM in International Trade Law from the ITC-ILO at the University of Torino, specializing in both the economic and legal aspects of international trade.
Milla has provided consultancy on trade matters for private firms and has been a regular consultant on trade remedies for the World Bank since 2009, where she also co-authored studies on the effects of trade on poverty in the EU regions and on the distortive effects of domestic subsidies on global trade.
Her PhD research uses statistics and econometric tools to assess the effectiveness of transnational litigation in providing effective remedy to victims of GVC-related environmental damage. Her other areas of research interest are: CJEU preliminary reference procedure, prospectus liability claims and the attribution of jurisdiction in cases of pure economic loss.
You find her publications in the WBG eLibrary
Contact: Ludmila.Cieszkowsky@vub.be
Max Eriksson is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Curia Virides project within the Brussels School of Governance. Before VUB, Dr. Eriksson conducted research at institutions such as the University of California, the University of Illinois, Cornell University, and Umeå University.
With a background in quantitative Political Science, Max is primarily focused on understanding environmental conflicts through empirical analysis and is particularly interested in how environmental conflicts can contribute to political alienation and aggravate political conflicts between urban and rural areas.
Contact: Max.Eriksson@vub.be
Max Eriksson
Associate Researchers
Alice Lopes Fabris is an Associate Researcher with the Curia Virides research project. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher at UMR 7206 Eco-Anthropologie, at the CNRS/Musee national d'histoire naturelle investigating topics of ecocide and green criminology.
She will start a HORIZON-MSCA post-doctoral project “Mother Earth” at the Brussels School of Government, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, investigating the impact of environmental crimes and human induced disaster on cultural rights of indigenous and afro-indigenous peoples. The supervisors are L. Lizarazo Rodriguez and Doreen Montag from QMUL.
She holds a Bachelor Degree from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) and a PhD from Ecole Normale Superior Paris-Saclay (France).
Her Ph.D. thesis, finished in 2021, dealt with ‘the notion of crimes against cultural heritage in international law’ (La notion de crime contre le patrimoine culturel en droit international), thesis published in 2022 by the Institut Francophone pour la Justice et Démocratie.
Alice’s research is focused on the international protection of cultural heritage, reparation of damage to tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and the protection of indigenous’ and local communities' cultural heritage.
Alice Lopes Fabris
Associate Researcher
Former team members
Afaf Rahim was a postdoctoral researcher at the ERC Curiae Virides project working on the mapping of ecological conflicts in Africa. She earned both her master’s and her Ph.D. degree in environmental economics and resource management from Wageningen University (The Netherlands).
Xavier Farré Fabregat was a PhD Researcher of the Curiae Viridies project researching about the socio-legal role of stakeholders and ecocentric networks in the transformation (and judicial resolution) of ecocentric disputes. He collaborated with the mapping of ecological conflicts.