Sindico, Francesco

Francesco offers a combined expertise on international climate change and energy law and policy, on the one hand, and on international groundwater law, on the other. Both areas are analysed through the lens of public international law.

Francesco  is Reader in International Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, School of Law. He is also Honorary Lecturer in International Law at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy of the University of Dundee, Scotland, UK, and a Visiting Lecturer in Climate Change Law and Policy at the Institute for Environment of Brunel University, London, UK. Francesco is currently Associate Editor of the journal Carbon and Climate Law Review, a member of the Editorial Committee of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law E-Journal and a founding member of the European Society of International Law Interest Group in International Environmental Law. He also collaborates with Perceva Ltd as climate change and water expert.

Previous posts include Lecturer in International Law at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy of the University of Dundee and Lecturer in Law at the School of Law of the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Environmental Regulatory Research Group.

Francesco holds a PhD in Law from the Universitat Jaume I in Castellon de la Plana, Spain and an LLM in International Law and International Relations from the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid. He has also been an EC Marie Curie fellow at the Institute of Environmental Studies of the Free University of Amsterdam and a visiting researcher at University College London and at the University of Geneva.

Research

Francesco’s research on international climate change law and policy focuses mainly on the interplay between international climate measures and the law of the World Trade Organisation. Francesco has also worked on the links between climate change and security and is currently interested in exploring how climate change per se, and the development of the international climate change regime in particular, may pose challenges to the foundations of Public International Law.

Francesco’s other main research interest lies in international groundwater law. From 2009 to 2011 he led an EPRSC-KT fellowship project in which he focused on the impact of the UN International Law Commission Draft Articles on the law of transboundary aquifers on the management of the Guarani Aquifer System in Latin America.

Francesco is currently involved in three major international projects: POLINARES, an EU 7FP project that examines the global challenges faced with respect to access to oil, gas and mineral resources over the next 30 years and proposes solutions for the various policy actors, including the EU. In this project he is currently leading work package 4 devoted to the development of a theoretical framework that will underpin policy recommendations aimed at promoting cooperation over access to oil, gas and minerals.

Francesco is also involved in The post-2012 international negotiations: A legal analysis of the fundamental issues, a project funded through the Management and Impacts of Climate Change (GICC) programme of the French Government Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Seas, where he currently contributes to the work package on climate and trade.

Finally, Francesco participates in Groundwater Governance in a Crowded World, a project jointly executed by FAO, UNESCO-IHP, IAH, the World Bank and GEF. The project addresses concerns over the depletion and degradation of groundwater in the Earth’s crust. These impacts are attributed to a general failure to use groundwater responsibly. The project aims to reverse these trends and Francesco is coordinating the project’s legal thematic paper.

Access to Francesco’s publications can be found here.