Biography
I am Lecturer in environmental law and public international law at Edinburgh Napier University. Over the years, I have developed a keen interest in international wildlife law, animal law and other non-legal related fields such as animal ethics, zoology, ethology and anthropology.
This interdisciplinary approach is a salient feature of my research output. Ever since the award of my Ph.D in 2017 from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne on the topic of the protection of terrestrial wildlife under public international law, I have advocated through my publications for a departure from the current utilitarian perspective which permeates international wildlife law, domestic laws and policies leading to a trivialisation animal lives for a more zoocentric approach which would give more consideration to the scientifically demonstrated fact that animals (chordata and cephalopods) are sentient beings. It is therefore a major research objective to find new paradigms on which to ground international wildlife law and wildlife conservation policies which would yield better conservation results and enhance animal welfare.
Prior to joining the Edinburgh Napier University, from 2017 to 2023, I was a project manager and senior research fellow with the Sub-Saharan Africa Team at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule Law where I was involved in legal capacity-building projects for the benefit of African judicial institutions especially in the Sahel Region. Within this framework I developed some expertise in comparative constitutional law as I worked mostly with the Constitutional and Supreme Courts of Mali and was involved in two constitutional reform processes still in Mali.
My experience in Africa is not limited to the Sahel region as I was a lecturer in law at the University of St-Augustine of Mwanza in Tanzania and also had short spells with the United Nations in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Outside of academic life, you will probably find me in the savannas of Eastern or Southern Africa or in the jungles of the Indian sub-continent for wildlife photography.