Dr Virginie Rouas

Virginie holds a PhD in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Law from the University of Strasbourg. Her main areas of expertise include access to justice, business and human rights, environmental law, and EU law and policy. In her doctoral thesis, she provided an analysis of access to justice in the European Union (mainly France and the Netherlands) in the context of human rights and environmental litigation against multinational enterprises. 

At SOAS, Virginie has been a guest lecturer for the postgraduate course ‘Law and Natural Resources’ and a graduate teaching assistant for the postgraduate course ‘International Protection of Human Rights.’ She has also worked for various national and international organizations and NGOs, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Global Witness, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), and Frank Bold. 

Virginie is a Research Associate at SOAS where she is pursuing research in her fields of interest. She is currently developing a monograph based on her doctoral thesis which explores the interplay between access to justice and business and human rights in European civil-law countries. She is also an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Law, Environment and Development (LEAD).

Virginie also works as a Legal Advisor for Milieu, a multi-disciplinary consultancy based in Brussels providing legal and policy services for the EU institutions and other international organisations. At Milieu, she has been involved in various environmental and human rights legal projects, including a research project on effective access to justice in the EU for the European Parliament; the evaluation of the Ecocrime Directive under the Better Regulation agenda; and a research project on the risk of fraud and money laundering in the EU Emissions Trading System.

Virginie is a member of the Business and Human Rights Practitioners’ Network, the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association, and the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Selected publications

Rouas V., Achieving Access to Justice in the Business and Human Rights Context: An Assessment of Litigation and Regulatory Responses in Europe (University of London Press, forthcoming)

Rouas V., Residential Prosumers in the European Energy Union: Mapping the legal and regulatory framework in France (European Commission, 2017)

Rouas V., Residential Prosumers in the European Energy Union: Mapping the legal and regulatory framework in Luxembourg (European Commission, 2017)

Ballesteros, M., Reins, L., Wemaere, M., Rouas, V., Legal nature of EU ETS allowances (European Commission, 2019)

Bradley H., Reins L., Crook N., van der Burgt N. and Rouas V., Study on the Precautionary Principle in EU Environmental Policies (European Commission, 2017)

Muchlinski, P. & Rouas, V. ‘Foreign Direct Liability Litigation: Towards the Transnationalisation of Corporate Legal Responsibility’ in Blecher, L., Stafford, N. K. & Bellamy, G.C. (eds.), Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Impacts: New Expectations and Paradigms (American Bar Association, 2014)

Rass-Masson, N. & Rouas, V., Effective Access to Justice in the European Union (European Parliament, 2017)

Selected conferences and workshops

‘Towards effective access to justice for victims of business-related human rights abuse? Analysis of the current UN draft treaty on business and human rights,’ Joint Research Seminar on Contemporary Challenges of Access to Justice in International Law (SOAS, 24 October 2019)

‘Silencing corporate accountability activism through the courtroom: the case of SLAPPs in Europe’, 5th Annual Workshop of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association (University of Essex, 13 September 2019)

‘In Search of Corporate Accountability: Environmental Litigation against Multinational Enterprises in Europe’, 2018 PIEL UK Conference Environmental Litigation: Has the Green Revolution Reached the Courts? (Cass Business School, 6 April 2018)

‘Environmental Governance beyond Borders: The Impact of European Union’s Normative Power in Non-EU Countries’ (with Florent Pelsy), Law, Environment and Development Centre Seminar Series (SOAS, 30 November 2017)

‘In Search of Corporate Accountability: Environmental Litigation against Multinational Enterprises in Europe’, 2018 PIEL UK Conference Environmental Litigation: Has the Green Revolution Reached the Courts? (Cass Business School, 6 April 2018)
‘Environmental Governance beyond Borders:  The Impact of European Union’s Normative Power in Non-EU Countries’ (with Florent Pelsy), Law, Environment and Development Centre Seminar Series (SOAS, 30 November 2017)

‘Challenging Corporate Power through Legal Mobilisation: The Use of Transnational Litigation against Multinational Enterprises by Corporate Accountability Activists in Europe,’ Dialogue and Networks: Responses and Challenges to Power and Injustice Conference (Kent Law School, 8-9 June 2015)

‘In Search of Corporate Accountability: Evaluating the Application of Public International Law to Human Rights Litigation against Businesses in Europe,’ ESIL Interest Group on Business and Human Rights’ Third Workshop Business and Human Rights: International Law and… (Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna, 3 September 2014)

‘In Search of Corporate Accountability: Assessing Human Rights Litigation against Multinational Enterprises in Western Europe,’ Human Rights Research Students Conference (University of Essex, 8 May 2014)

‘Regulating Multinational Enterprises through Transnational Litigation: Opportunities and Limits in Europe,’ Regulating Behaviour: Law, Theory and Practice Conference (Birmingham Law School, 26 September 2012)

‘Extraterritorial Human Rights Litigation in European Civil-Law Countries,’ 2011-2012 SOAS Legal Research Seminars (SOAS Law School, 2 November 2011)

Business and human rights; access to justice; environmental law; corporate accountability; comparative law; European Union (EU) law; French law; criminal law; private international law; international and European human rights law; collective redress; social movement theory; Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).