Dr Nilüfer Oral

Dr Nilüfer Oral is Director of the Centre for International Law. Dr Oral has over 20 years of experience in the study, teaching and practice of international law. She has been a member of the Law Faculty at Istanbul Bilgi University since 1998. In 2016, she was elected by the UN General Assembly to the International Law Commission where she is co-chair of the study group on sea level rise in relation to international law. She has been nominated by Turkey to the International Law Commission (2022–2027). She has advised the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Turkey on matters related to the law of the sea and climate change, and served as a climate change negotiator between 2009 and 2016, and attended meetings held by the International Maritime Organization. She has also appeared before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Dr Oral has worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She was elected as a member to the IUCN Council (2012–2016) and was co-chair of the Specialist Group on Oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs (2006–2016). She has also served as chair of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (2013–2016). She is currently a member of the governing board of the International Council on Environmental Law (ICEL) and the steering committee of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Dr Oral is distinguished senior scholar at the Law of the Sea Institute at the University of California, Berkeley’s Law School. She was scholar-in-residence at the University of Virginia’s Law School in 2005 and has lectured on several occasions at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy. Dr Oral has been a guest lecturer at the CIL Distinguished Speakers Series and a research consultant to the CIL Ocean Law and Policy programme. Dr Oral has also been involved as a legal expert on a number of projects with the EU, UNEP, UNDP and the Turkish Science Council on marine environmental and climate change issues.

Dr Oral is the series editor of the International Straits of the World series (Brill), a member of the board of editors of the European Society of International Law, associate editor for Brill Research Perspectives in the Law of the Sea, a member of the Advisory Board of the AALCO Journal of International Law, a member of the International Advisory Board of the Chinese Journal of Environmental Law, and a member of the editorial board of The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (as of 2020).

Dr Oral has published extensively in recognised academic publications and has spoken at numerous international fora. She speaks Turkish, English and French.