
Dr. Christiane Gerstetter
Rechtsanwältin (Lawyer)
Senior Fellow
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Christiane Gerstetter works as a Senior Fellow in the Ecologic Institute's legal team in a part-time position. Her main research interests are international trade policy, environmental law and its enforcement, and transformation processes. Her main regional interest is the Middle East. Christiane Gerstetter works in German and English; she also understands and/or speaks Arabic, French, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish to varying degrees.
On environmental crime and compliance assurance, Christiane Gerstetter currently co-coordinates a project on sanctions to address non-compliance with environmental law. Earlier, she coordinated the EU-funded research project EU Action to Fight Environmental Crime (EFFACE) and is also one of the leading authors of a study on wildlife crime. She also coordinated a project on environmental criminal law in Germany and supported the EU Commission in implementing the Action on Environmental Compliance Assurance and Governance.
On trade, she co-authored a study on strengthening rules on forest protection in the EU-Mercosur trade agreement. Moreover, she co-authored several studies on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), including studies for the European Parliament on the impact of TTIP on European Union environmental and food safety regulation and studies on investor-state dispute settlement and regulatory cooperation in TTIP respectively. Earlier trade-related projects include a legal study of the international legal framework relevant to support systems for renewable energy, policy briefs on trade and climate change, a study on the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol for the European Commission, and a project dealing with the WTO compatibility of environmental labels.
Her development-related work includes studies for the European Parliament on development cooperation and research on climate change adaptation, water conflicts and human security in the Mediterranean area as part of the CLICO project.
Christiane Gerstetter is an experienced and passionate moderator and has facilitated a wide variety of events and formats in German and English for the past 20 years. Among others, she focused on planning and moderating events as part of her work on the Scientific Coordination of Research Projects on a Sustainable Economy (NaWiKo).
Christiane Gerstetter completed her post-graduate legal training in Berlin, including work at the EU Department of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Embassy in Yemen. Prior to that, she was a researcher at the University of Bremen in a project on the tensions and interdependencies between international and European trade law and social regulation.
Christiane Gerstetter studied law, philosophy and international relations in Heidelberg and Bremen and passed her law school exam in 2003. She completed her PhD thesis on dispute settlement within the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the University of Bremen.
Besides her work for Ecologic Institute, Christiane is also a legal researcher at ClientEarth.
For many years, she has been involved in NGOs and social movements. Since June 2016, she has been a member of the investment committee of Oekoworld, an ethical asset management company. She lived and worked in the Middle East and Central America where she focused on issues of human rights, non-violent conflict transformation and development.
Contact Dr. Christiane Gerstetter by Email
Selected projects by Dr. Christiane Gerstetter
Environmental Crime and Compliance
Criminal and other Sanctions in Environmental Law
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Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Implementation of the European Union's Action Plan on Environmental Compliance Assurance and Governance
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European Commission, Directorate-General Environment (DG Environment), International
Environmental Criminal Law: Status quo and Further Development
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Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime (EFFACE)
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European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), International
Trade
ENVI Relevant Legislative Areas of the EU-US TTIP Negotiations
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European Parliament (EP), International
How to Verify Claims on the Environmental Properties of Products and Organizations?
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European Commission, Directorate-General Environment (DG Environment), International
International Law and Support for Renewable Energies
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Environmental Law
Anchoring Extended Producer Responsibility in International Law
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Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Potential of Other Legal Areas to Achieve the Objectives of the Water Framework Directive
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Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Study on the Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in the EU
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European Commission, Directorate-General Environment (DG Environment), International
Sustainable Development
Monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Europe 2020 Strategy and Policy Initiatives beyond 2020
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European Commission, Eurostat (Eurostat), International
Scientific Coordination of Research Projects on a Sustainable Economy
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Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany German Aerospace Center, DLR Bonn (DLR), Germany
Climate Change, Hydro-conflicts and Human Security (CLICO)
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European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), International
Intellectual Property Rights and Fighting Poverty - Study for the European Parliament
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European Parliament (EP), International
Framework Contract Development Policy for the European Parliament
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European Parliament (EP), International
Selected publications by Dr. Christiane Gerstetter
Bley, Simon Johannes, et al. (ed.) 2020: Sustainable Development in the European Union. Monitoring Report on Progress Towards the SDGs in an EU Context. [eurostat Statistical books 2020 edition]. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Gerstetter, Christiane: Substance and Style - How the WTO Adjudicators Legitimize their Decisions, in: Andreas Follesdal and Geir Ulfstein: The Judicialization of International Law, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2018
Behnassi, Mohamed and Katriona McGlade (eds.) 2017: Environmental Change and Human Security in Africa and the Middle East. Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
Pitschas, Christian and Christiane Gerstetter 2017: Consumer Rights in International Trade Agreements. Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband: Berlin.
Sina, Stephan; Gerstetter, Christiane; Porsch, Lucas et al. (2016): Wildlife Crime. Study for the ENVI Committee, Brussels.
Gerstetter, Christiane; Benjamin Görlach; Kirsten Neumann and Dora Schaffrin 2007: "The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture within the Current Legal Regime Complex on Plant Genetic Resources". Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol. 10, No. 3-4, 259-283.
Selected presentations by Dr. Christiane Gerstetter
Presentations & Discussions
Speech:Wildlife Crime
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- Brussels, Belgium
Speech:The Effectiveness of the EU's Legislative Framework on Environmental Crime
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- Aix en Provence, France
Panel discussion:Statement of the German Advisory Council on the Environment on TTIP
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- Berlin, Germany
Speech:The Relationship between International Environmental and Trade Agreements
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- Hofgeismar, Germany
Panel discussion:Combating Wildlife Crime: Efforts and Perspectives from the UK and Germany
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- Berlin, Germany
Panel discussion:Discussion on TTIP in the European Parliament
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- Brussels, Belgium
Speech:Substance and Style – How the WTO Adjudicators Legitimize their Decisions
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- Oslo, Norway
Facilitation
Chairing:Online Course on Environmental Law for Russian and German Students
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- online
Chairing:Ecologic Institute at Symposium on Transformative Research
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- Online, Germany