Profile - Centre for International Law

Profile

Dr Ayelet Berman is Lead of CIL’s Global Health Law and Governance program where she is also a Senior Research Fellow and a member of the International Investment Law and Policy Group. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at the NUS Faculty of Law. She is the elected Vice Chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) International Organizations Interest Group. She is a member of the International Law Association Steering Committee on International Health Law. Other past academic appointments include Research Fellow at the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and Visiting Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Lausanne.

Practice

Prior to entering academia, Dr Berman practiced law in the field of World Trade Organization (WTO) litigation at Sidley Austin (Geneva). She also practiced regulatory and commercial law at Herzog, Fox & Neeman (Tel Aviv). She was a research assistant to Justice Miryam Ben-Porat (dec.) of the Israeli Supreme Court.

Teaching

She teaches in the fields of global regulation and governance, international investment and trade law. She co-runs the International Economic Law TradeLab clinic.

Publications and Speaking Engagements

Dr Berman regularly publishes or speaks on global regulation and governance, global health law, and international investment law. She’s published in top peer-reviewed journals such as the American Journal of International Law (Unbound), the International Journal of Constitutional Law and the European Journal of International Law. Her books Rethinking Stakeholder Participation in Global Governance: Challenges and Reforms in Financial and Health Institutions (OUP, 2021) and Investment Treaties and the Rule of Law Promise: The Asian Experience (CUP, 2021) are forthcoming. She regularly moderates panels or presents her work at leading international law conferences and professional events, including at events of the American Society of International law, the Asian Society of International Law, and at the OECD. Her media commentary on COVID-19 and global health governance is regularly featured in the South China Morning Post.

Professional Service and Leadership

Dr Berman is the elected Vice-Chair of the ASIL International Organizations Interest Group. She is executive board member of Tradelab, a network of international economic law clinics. She is a member of the academic advisory group of the OECD Partnership for Effective International Rule-Making by International Organisations. She is a member of the International Law Association’s Steering Committee on International Health Law White Paper.

Notable Awards

Dr. Berman’s PhD dissertation was awarded the 2015 SNIS Award for Best PhD in International Studies, which honors the best PhD thesis received at a Swiss university on a subject related to International Studies (from all academic disciplines in all Swiss universities).

Current Research Projects

Dr Berman’s research is interdisciplinary, bridging law, international relations, and public policy. She’s currently working on a project on the reform of the WHO’s International Health Regulations following COVID-19. She also co-runs two research projects: The ‘Investment Treaties and National Governance’ project examines the effects of investment treaties on national governance in Asian countries. The ‘Rethinking Stakeholder Participation in International Governance’ examines the participation of non-state actors, developing, and emerging countries in international rule-making (forthcoming, with Oxford University Press). Previously, she was a researcher on the ‘Informal International Law-Making’ project, which examined the shift from formal to informal international law.

Education

She holds a PhD in International Law (summa cum laude ‘with congratulations of the committee’) and a DEA in International Law from the Graduate Institute/University of Geneva, and an LLB (magna cum laude) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As an undergraduate student, Ayelet was a teaching assistant in the fields of administrative law and constitutional law at the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Research Interests
- Global Governance Law
- International Rule-Making, International Standard-Setting
- Global Health Law
- Non-State Actors in International Law
- International Investment Law
- International Trade Law
- Domestic Implementation of International Law
Selected Publications
- Investment Treaties and the Rule of Law Promise: The Asian Experience (with Jansen Calamita) (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
- Rethinking Participation in Global Governance: Challenges and Reforms in Global Health and Global Finance (with Joost Pauwelyn, Tim Buthe and Martino Maggetti) (Oxford University Press, 2021, forthcoming)
- Global Governance: The World Health Organization and the Need for Post-COVID-19 Reform Addressing Challenges to Public Health and Society Through Global Collaboration (with Leila Sadat, Frederick Abbott and others), Submitted to the World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response for consideration here.
- Closing the Compliance Gap: From Soft to Hard Monitoring Mechanisms under International Health Regulations (Global Studies Law Review, forthcoming)
- When Crisis Meets Preparation and Discipline: Singapore’s Successful Response to COVID-19 (with Fong Han Tan) (Global Studies Law Review, forthcoming)
- ‘Between Participation and Capture: The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors’ 32(1) European Journal of International Law (2021)
- The World Health Organization (WHO) and COVID-19: How Much Legal Authority Does the WHO really Have to Manage the Pandemic? in CIL Blog (2020)
- ‘Accordion Governance‘ 13(3) Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law (2019)
- ‘The Rise of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships‘ in Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting 2017
- ‘Industry, Capture and Transnational Standard-Setting’ in 111 American Journal of International Law (AJIL) Unbound (2017):112-118
- ‘Taking Foreign Interests into Account: Rulemaking in the U.S. and EU’ in 15 (1) International Journal of Constitutional Law (2017): 235-256
- ‘Emergency Action by the WTO Director General: Global Administrative Law and the WTO’s Initial Response to the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis’ , 6 (2) International Organizations Law Review (2009): 499-512 (with Joost Pauwelyn)
- Informal International Law-Making: Case Studies, Ayelet Berman et. al. (eds) TOAEP 2012
Conference Presentations
Selected Speaking Engagements (since 2015)

2020
- Panelist, ‘The Likely Trajectory of Global Governance after the U.S. Elections: A Comparative Perspective’, McDonnell International Scholars Academy, Washington University in St. Louis (23 November 2020)
- Panelist, ‘United we Stand: Exploring New Collaboration Architectures in Uncertain Times’, OECD Government After Shock Global Forum (18 November 2020)
- Moderator, ‘Business Engagement in Global Governance: Boon or Peril?’International Law Association American Branch, International Law Weekend (22-24 October 2020)
- Introductory remarks, ‘COVID-19: A New Surveillance Era?’, ASIL and CIL co-sponsored event as part of the CIL Covid-19 and International Law e-conference series (27 July 2020)
- Moderator, ‘Between Participation and Capture in International Rule-Making’, American Society of International Law Annual Meeting (June 2020)
- Panelist, ‘Emergency Powers of International Organizations’, OECD Partnership for Effective Rulemaking by International Organizations (June 2020)
- Discussant, Charles Roger’s Book ‘The Origin of Informality’ (Oxford University Press), Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies GLOBE Webinar (28 May 2020)
- Panelist, ‘Global Health Governance in the Time of COVID19’, CIL Covid-19 and International Law e-conference series (29 April 2020)
2019
- ‘Democracy and Participation in International Organization: The World Health Organization Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors’, 30^th European Journal of International Law Symposium on International Law and Democracy Revisited, NYU School of Law (18-20 September 2019)
- Panel Moderator, ’Investment Treaties, National Governance and the Rule of Law Promise’, Asian Society of International Law 7^th Biennial Conference (22-23 August 2019)
- “Preventing Undue Influence in International Rule-Making”, 8^th Annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Law, NUS, Singapore (12-14 August 2019)
2018
- “International Investment Treaties and Domestic Governance”, ASIL Research Forum, UCLA School of Law (8-9 November 2018)
- Invited speaker, “Trade, Public Policy and Health Workshop”, RegNet School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University, Canberra (5-6 June 2018)
- “International Trade Law”, Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs Course (2018)
- Panel moderator, “The Internalization of Investment Treaties”, Investment Treaties and National Governance panel, 15^th Asian Law Institute (ASLI) Conference, Seoul National University (10-11 May 2018)
- Invited speaker, Better International Rules for Inclusive Globalization, 5^th Annual Meeting of International Organizations (OECD) (12 April 2018)
- “Accordion Governance”, Global Networks and Power, International Studies Association Annual Conference, San Francisco (April 2018)
2017
- Invited discussant, Fragmentation and Harmonization in International Law panel, ASIL Research Forum, St. Louis (26-28 October 2017)
- Invited panelist, The Path to Practice in International Law, ASIL Research Forum, St. Louis (26-28 October 2017)
- “Accordion Governance”, ASIL Research Forum, St. Louis (26-28 October 2017)
- Invited panelist, Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in International Law, American Society of International Law (ASIL), Annual Conference (April 2017)
2016
- Invited speaker, “The Practices of International Organizations to Engage Stakeholders—Contribution of Stakeholder Engagement to Good Regulatory Practices”, OECD, International Organizations: Their Role in International Regulatory Cooperation meeting (15 April 2016)
- “Stakeholder Participation in International Governance: 2^nd Generation Legitimacy Challenges”, American Society of International Law (ASIL) Research Forum, Washington D.C., (23-24 October 2015)
- “Taking Foreign Interests into Account: Rulemaking in the U.S. and EU”, International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) Annual Conference, NYU School of Law (1-3 July 2015)
- Invited panelist, “The Stagnation of International Law”, American Society of International Law (ASIL), Annual Conference (April 2015)

Dr Ayelet Berman