Councillor Biographies
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, International lawyer and scholar, directs International Affairs for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources and in an academic capacity is Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL).
She serves as senior legal advisor to the UN and countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia to implement sustainable development treaties on trade, investment, biodiversity and climate change, earning sixteen national commendations for her justice work. She holds a "Lauterpacht Centre for International Law" Fellowship at Cambridge University, and has authored / edited fourteen books in four languages published by Oxford University Press, Kluwer Law International and others, for which she has won valuable "Chevening", "Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council", "International Development Research Centre", "Wainwright" and "Avina" awards and grants. She trains Supreme Court Judges and lectures at Oxford, Cambridge, McGill, Victoria and Chile law faculties, also for the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Rome, and has been featured by CNN and the BBC. She serves on the Board of International Law Association, chairs an International Union for Conservation of Nature's Expert Group on Trade & Environment Law and a post-WSSD Partnership in International Sustainable Development Law, and has founded nine other grassroots, national and international organizations. In her role at NRCan, she also represents Canada in the International Trade & Investment Centre, the UN International Panel on Sustainable Resource Management, and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. She has completed two degrees in law (McGill), a masters in law and economics (Yale) and doctoral work in international law (Oxford), and speaks five languages.
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