Profile
Dr Tibisay Morgandi, LLM (Harvard), PhD (Graduate Institute Geneva), is a tenured Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Energy and Natural Resources Law at QMUL School of Law. She is a general international lawyer who teaches, publishes and practises in variety of areas in international law, including energy, environmental and climate law, investment and trade law, business and human rights (including ESG and sustainability) and the law of the sea. Her research has been published in leading journals, including the Cambridge International Law Journal, the King’s Law Journal and the American Journal of International Law Unbound. Tibisay is also a member of the editorial board of the journal Global Energy Law and Sustainability (GELS).
At QMUL, Tibisay is the Director of the TradeLab legal clinic offering pro bono support on international trade and investment law and policy to governments, NGOs, local communities and SMEs (see projects on ‘Investment Treaties and Climate Change Measures’ and ‘Counterclaims in International Investment Law’ for the Chilean Government). At QMUL, Tibisay also chaired the Climate Emergency Working Group, leading the creation of the podcast series ‘Climate Game Changers’ (listen to episodes on ‘Climate Litigation’ and ‘AI and climate’). In recognition of her work in the field of climate law, environmental law, and business and human rights, Tibisay has been appointed Distinguished Research Fellow at Macquarie University’s Centre for Environmental Law based in Sydney.
Tibisay has been involved in proceedings before the International Court of Justice, ICSID, and SIAC. She has advised governments in Europe and South America, as well as inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, including the European Commission, Chatham House and Client Earth. She is listed as arbitrator by the Energy Disputes Arbitration Center (EDAC) and is EDAC’s UK representative. Prior to joining QMUL, she practised public international law and investment arbitration at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris.
Tibisay was educated in Italy (Law degree, Università Cattolica Milan), in Switzerland (Masters and PhD in International Law, Graduate Institute Geneva), and in the US (LLM, Harvard). Prior to joining QMUL, she was awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge, where she taught international environmental law and international law. At Cambridge, she created the first-ever dataset on international energy agreements (energybilaterals.org, funded by Cambridge, Philomathia Foundation and SNSF).
Tibisay is registered at the Bar in Italy, where she practised for two years in domestic litigation and arbitration. She is an Italian national, who grew up bilingual in Italian and Spanish; she is also fluent in English and French.
Postgraduate Teaching
LLM Teaching
Dr Morgandi convenes and teaches four modules:
Special acknowledgements
In 2020, Dr Morgandi received special recognition for the quality of her teaching from the Vice Principal for Education and the HSS Dean for Education.
Research
Research Interests:
Research interests
Tibisay’s research focuses on energy, environmental and climate law and policy, investment and trade law, business and human rights (including ESG and sustainability), and the law of the sea.
Journal peer-reviewing
Harvard Journal of International Law; Journal of International Economic Law; German Yearbook of International Law; Erasmus Law Review; Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.
Funded research
During her Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, Tibisay published a dataset of bilateral energy agreements as part of a research project funded by the SNSF, the Philomathia Foundation and the University of Cambridge.
Other research projects and consultancies
Tibisay has consulted for several governmental and non-governmental organisations.
In 2022, she authored two reports on forced labour rights in international trade, one on ‘Recognising the ILO Fundamental Labour Right at the WTO: a Call for an Authoritative Interpretation’ and the other one on ‘WTO Law Aspects of Import Prohibitions on Products and Services Made Using Forced Labour’. The reports were published by the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (ILAW).
In 2020, she authored a report on process and production methods (PPMs) in international trade. The report was published by Client Earth as ‘International Trade Rules and Environmental Protection Measures – Import Restrictions and Process Production Methods (PPMs) under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade’.
In 2018 and 2019, Dr Morgandi consulted for the European Commission, working on projects related to trade and human rights, and energy connectivity (in particular the EU model of electricity transmission networks, ENTSO-E) respectively.
In 2018, she contributed to a report on ‘Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade Agreements’ for Chatham House.
In 2017, Dr Morgandi co-authored a research paper on fisheries subsidies in the WTO, which was commissioned and published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) to assist negotiators at the 2017 WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires.
Supervision
Dr Morgandi is currently co-supervising, alongside Dr Angelos Dimopoulos and Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice, a PhD thesis entitled ‘Member States as advocates of the EU? Legal challenges and implications concerning the balancing of environmental concerns under bilateral investment agreements with non-EU countries’ (Eleftheria Asimakopoulou).
Public Engagement
Tibisay regularly engages with the public through the design, conduct and dissemination of cutting-edge research. In addition to her work as a consultant (see Research), she regularly speaks at conferences.
She has presented her research at over 40 conferences and workshops worldwide, including at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Leiden University, the Asser Institute, Bocconi University, the University of Copenhagen, Fordham School of Law, Universidad Externado de Colombia, SciencesPo Paris, King’s College London, and the University of Oslo.
She has been interviewed by Energy Intelligence and the Voice of America.
In her capacity as Chair of QMUL Climate Emergency Working Group, she led the creation of the Climate Game Changers podcast series (listen to episodes on ‘Climate Litigation’ and ‘AI and Climate’).
At QMUL, she currently co-convenes the Critical Hope Collective, a group bringing together scholars interested in examining the concept, practice and politics of hope in a time of climate emergency, environmental destruction, increasing inequality and political instability.
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