Johanna Sophie Bürkert

• Presentation
• Research outputs

Johanna is a PhD candidate at the Centre for International Law and Governance (CILG) at the University of Copenhagen. She is interested in climate change-, international environmental law, the Law of the Sea as well as inter-and transdisciplinary approaches. Johanna holds a BA in Law in Europe and an LLB in Dutch law from Tilburg University, as well as an LLM from Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Current research
The Role of Law in Arctic Coastal Socio-Ecological Systems' Resilience to Climate Change: An international law study on the case of Indigenous bowhead whaling

Johanna's PhD dissertation, supervised by Associate Professor Beatriz Martinez Romera, aims at evaluating law in the context of socio-ecological resilience.  The effects of climate change are already very visible in the Arctic, and are likely to increase in the future. As a consequence, Arctic socio-ecological systems experience changes that can influence ways in which humans and the environment interact and continue to exist in the future. The project aims to understand whether and in what way law can be used as a tool to contribute to resilience in the Arctic. The project sets out to provide a law-in-context assessment of the international legal framework under study, in order to investigate not only its theoretical, but also its practical effectiveness for the resilience of people and their environment in which they live.

Johanna is actively participating in CILG’s recurring research events, such as the Climate Breakfast Seminar Series and the Interdisciplinary Seminar Series on Climate, Energy and Sustainability.

Additionally, Johanna is part of several international research networks, such as CArGo (Climate Arctic Governance) and NeOGov (Nordic Research Network on Climate Change and Ocean Governance: Understanding International and Regional Ocean Regimes through the Lens of Climate Change).

Teaching and Supervision

Johanna is currently teaching in 'Climate Change and the Law',  'Global Environmental Governance',  'Public International Law', 'Arctic Climate Change Law and Governance' and the Advanced LLM in Energy Law.  She welcomes bachelor and master projects on EU- and International Environmental Law, on climate-change related topics and in the broad field of Public International Law. Research projects with a special focus on interdisciplinary research approaches within the law are also more than welcome. 

Research interests

• Arctic law and policy
• Resilience assessment
• International environmental and climate change law
• Transdisciplinary approaches to law
• Empirical legal research