People of the Law Group

Danielle de Andrade Moreira is an Associate Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), where she teaches in the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs in law. She is the founder and coordinator of the research group Law, Environment, and Justice in the Anthropocene (JUMA/PUC-Rio). JUMA/PUC-Rio is responsible for the development and maintenance of the Brazilian Climate Litigation Platform. Danielle currently serves as a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science; as the Brazil Rapporteur for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law’s Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics project; as Director of the Law for a Green Planet Institute; and as Academic Coordinator of the Association of Environmental Law Professors of Brazil. She also holds the title of State Scientist awarded by the Rio de Janeiro State Research Support Foundation. Professor Danielle Moreira holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and a BA in Law (1998) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She has been teaching and researching environmental law at PUC-Rio since 2002. Her experience extends beyond academia into legal and policy advisory roles, having previously served as Vice-President of the Deliberative Council of the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO) and as a legal advisor to FUNBIO, the State of Rio de Janeiro Environmental Protection Agency, and the State Forestry Institute.

Emily Broad-Leib is a Clinical Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, the nation’s first law school clinic devoted to providing legal and policy solutions to the health, economic, and environmental challenges facing our food system. She is also Faculty Director of Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. Working directly with clients and communities, Broad Leib champions community-led food system change, reduction in food waste, policies to increase food access and “food is medicine” interventions, and sustainability in food production. Her scholarly work has been published in California Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, the Harvard Law & Policy Review, the Food & Drug Law Journal, and the Journal of Food Law & Policy, among others.  A recognized leader in the field, Broad Leib’s work has been covered by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian, TIME, Politico, and The Washington Post. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude.

Juliana Cesario Alvim Gomes is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at Central European University (Austria) and Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).  Her research focuses on constitutional law and human rights theory, with particular emphasis on constitutionalism in Latin America, gender and sexuality, equality and difference, social mobilization, and the role of courts in advancing rights. She combines doctrinal analysis, comparative constitutional law, and socio-legal methods to study constitutions, courts, and social movements, exploring how law both shapes and responds to societal power dynamics and struggles for inclusion. 

Juliana is co-director of the project Varieties of Constitutionalism: Contestations of Liberalism in Comparative Constitutional Law (VACON), which brings together scholars from Brazil and Germany to examine challenges to liberal constitutional norms and institutional structures, comparing the resulting constitutional variants across contexts. With over fifteen years of experience in strategic human rights litigation, Juliana has worked on cases before the Brazilian Supreme Court and has contributed to advocacy and litigation before United Nations bodies and the Inter-American Human Rights System. She is co-chair of the Brazilian Chapter of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) and is currently co-editing the Oxford Handbook of the Brazilian Constitution. She holds a PhD and an MA in Public Law from UERJ, an LL.M. from Yale Law School—where she was also a Visiting Fellow—and bachelor’s degrees in Law (UERJ) and Social Sciences (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

Since July 2018 Dr. Heuser is Chair of the Specialist Group on “Soil and Sustainable Agriculture Law“ of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Dr. Irene Heuser is active in the field of environmental policy and law since more than 30 years. She received a “summa cum laude” in Law for her PhD thesis on European Soil Protection Law in 2005 from the University of Trier, Germany (with a scholarship of the German Research Council). Irene currently lives near Berlin and works as Head of the Unit “EU Policy, EU Law, Development Policy” as well as Deputy Head of the International Department of the Ministry for Europe in Potsdam. She previously worked as Head of the Minister’s Office or Senior Legal Officer in the State Chancellery of Brandenburg, the Ministry of Environment and the Directorate-General Environment of the European Commission. She has written several articles on soil protection, agriculture and sustainability law and is co-editor of the International Yearbook on Soil Law and Policy (IYSLP). She spoke at major conferences around the world on topics related to soil protection and environmental law (FAO, UNCCD, Global Soil Week etc.) and is an expert member of the Aroura Think Tank on Soil Security. She speaks English, French and German.

Professor Amanda Kennedy is Professor of Law and Head of School at the School of Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. Her research focuses on environmental and natural resource governance, with particular expertise in agri-environmental regulation, mining and resources law, environmental justice, land use conflict, sustainable development, and regulatory approaches to complex sustainability challenges. She has secured competitive Australian Research Council and industry funding, with publications in leading international journals, scholarly monographs and edited collections. Her work is interdisciplinary and policy-engaged, examining how legal frameworks can support more just and sustainable transitions in resource use and environmental management. Professor Kennedy is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She currently serves as Chair of the Governing Board of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (elected member for Oceania), Deputy Co-Chair of the LAWASIA Environmental Law Committee, and is a Fellow of the Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law.

Prof. Dr. Anél du Plessis (BA, LLB, LLM, LLD) holds the Chair in Urban Law and Sustainability Governance in the Faculty of Law, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.  Her scholarship and areas of teaching focuses on different aspects of the complex intersection of multi-level law, urban development, city-level sustainability and climate change.  Her own work and that of her postgraduate students aim to unravel what climate change and unsustainable urban development mean for long-term spatial and environmental justice, ecological restoration, climate-responsive governance, and adequate legal responses in the African context.  She currently serves as Co-Rapporteur for the International Law Association Committee on Urbanisation and International Law and as Co-editor of the Edward Elgar Handbook on Cities and Climate Change Law (forthcoming in 2026).

Prof. J.W.A. (Jeroen) Rheinfeld has been a partner at FBN Juristen since 2018. As an advisor and lecturer, he specializes in registered property practice and specifically in agricultural law. With effect from June 1, 2020, Jeroen has been appointed professor by special appointment of agricultural law at the University of Groningen. He is also a partner at the Institute for Agricultural Law in Wageningen. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Agricultural Law, the Land and Horticulture Bulletin, and the Notary Clerk, and is a regular contributor to the FBN editorial team. Jeroen obtained his PhD from Radboud University in 2014 with a thesis on land exchange. He also works at this university as a university lecturer and teaches the master's course Law for Rural Areas. Since 2004, he has published regularly in (agricultural) legal and tax journals, is the author of various legal and tax commentaries (including Tekst & Commentaar Omgevingsrecht, SDU commentaar Pacht) and teaches courses on a wide range of civil, tax and notarial topics.

J.B. Ruhl is the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School, where he also serves as Director of the Program on Law & Innovation and Co-director of the Energy, Environment, and Land Use Program. His research focuses on environmental and natural resources law and climate change adaptation, with special attention to endangered species protection, ecosystem services, adaptive management, and complex social-ecological-technological systems. His work in these fields has appeared in leading law journals and in peer-reviewed scientific journals including Science and PNAS. Before joining the Vanderbilt faculty, he taught at Florida State University and Southern Illinois University, and he has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard and George Washington University. Prior to entering academia, he was a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright) practicing environmental and land use law in Austin, Texas. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, an LL.M. in Environmental Law from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Geography from Southern Illinois University. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American College of Environmental Lawyers.

Joana Setzer is an Associate Professor at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is also the Co-Lead of the Mobilising legal, political, and governance systems theme of LSE’s Global School of Sustainability. Her main areas of expertise are climate litigation and global environmental governance. Joana leads the Grantham Research Institute’s Climate Change Laws of the World project – the most comprehensive global resource on climate policy and legislation. Joanna is recognized globally for her leading expertise in climate law and governance, and specifically, in climate litigation. She has published extensively in leading outlets on these topics.