Liliana Lizarazo-Rodríguez

Principal Investigator

Liliana Lizarazo-Rodríguez is a research professor at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and principal investigator of the ERC project Curiae Virides.

Liliana studied Law at the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and at the UNED (Spain). She also studied Financial Law at the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and Development Studies and Public Administration and Management at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Liliana obtained her PhD at the Department of Interdisciplinary Study of Law, Private Law and Business Law of the University of Ghent (Belgium).

Liliana is an expert in the areas of responsible corporate behavior, access to justice, law and sustainability, and judicial adjudication. 

You find her publications on  Orcid and the Research Portal fo the VUB.

Contact: Liliana.Lizarazo.Rodriguez@vub.be

Daniel Alejo

PhD Researcher

Daniel Alejo is an interdisciplinary PhD Researcher member of the ERC Curiae Virides project since 2022. He holds a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and a Master’s of Science in Development and Globalization studies from the University of Antwerp.

In his PhD research, he aims to analyze the socio-legal context and role of civil society actors in environmental litigation arising from transnational ecological conflicts. His research combines different theoretical approaches, including the sociology of law, environmental sociology, and social movement studies, and uses a mixed-methods design. As part of the Curiae Virides team, he is creating a database of actors involved in transnational ecological conflicts, capturing their roles in the conflict as well as in any legal proceedings. His goal in creating the database is to identify the actors lodging complaints to courts and the ways they mobilize to do so. In his analysis, he uses social network analysis and interviews to understand the actors’ motivations and interests in bringing cases of ecological degradation to courts and the forms of cooperation between actors

Other research interests include the socio-environmental impacts of the energy transition and the EU policies that promote it, as well as the struggles of food sovereignty and land rights movements, climate justice activists, human rights advocates, and more.

Contact: Daniel.alejo@vub.be

João Teixeira de Freitas

PhD Researcher

João Teixeira de Freitas is a PhD researcher of the Curiae Virides project, studying how transnational ecological conflicts turn into lawsuits and the role played by courts in this context.

João has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Portuguese Catholic University and a master’s degree in Transnational Law from Católica Global School of Law / King’s College London, where he researched the legal regulation of transnational corporate accountability for human rights abuses​

Before joining the Brussels School of Governance, João worked independently as a public affairs and communications consultant for several Brussels based projects.

His PhD research focuses on the theoretical (and empirical) foundations of value chain due diligence in transnational ecological conflicts.  

Contact: Joao.De.Freitas@vub.be

Kata Dozsa

Postdoctoral researcher

Kata Dozsa is a postdoctoral researcher in the Curiae Virides project where she conducts qualitative empirical research on transnational ecological litigaton. She is also Adjunct Professor at Vesalius College. Her research focuses on intergenerational justice, children’s rights, public participation and climate change.

She holds a PhD in law (University of Antwerp, 2021); an Advanced Master of Children’s Rights (University of Fribourg and Institute of Kurt Bosch); an LL.M (Pazmany Peter Catholic University); and a Master in Journalism (University of Szeged). She held a postdoctoral status at the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group from 2021 to 2023. Between 2011 and 2018, she worked for the European Commission in various posts, such as press officer for Climate Action and later as policy officer for the rights of the child.

She is the author of the book “Children as Climate Citizens” (Routledge, 2023), and has numerous publications about children’s rights, the rights of future generations and climate change, including in the 2020 and 2023 editions of the European Yearbook on Human Rights. In 2022, she was awarded the Sustainability Research Award for her contribution to climate change policy-development in Belgium

Contact: Kata.Dozsa@vub.be

Nguyen Thi Xuan Mai

Associate Researcher

Nguyen Thi Xuan Mai is a PhD Candidate at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a Lecturer at Ho Chi Minh University of Economics and Finance. Her PhD research focuses on ‘Green Transition, FTAs, and Workers’ Rights: The Case of Freedom of Association in Vietnam’s Textile Industry.’ With a Master of Laws from Tilburg University, she also serves as an Arbitrator at the Pacific International Arbitration Centre. Mai’s current research explores workers’ freedom of association in the textile sector, green loans, environmental protection in new-generation free trade agreements, and corporate social responsibility. Her background includes practical experience as a legal associate advising labour and company matters.
Contact: thi.xuan.mai.nguyen@vub.be 
Publications: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1802-2829

Francesca Leucci

Associate Researcher

Francesca Leucci is a research associate (postdoc) at the Centre for European Private Law (ZEP) of the University of Graz and at the Institute for European Tort Law (ETL) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. She is also an associate researcher of the Curiae Virides project at the Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy (C3E) of the Brussels School of Governance, studying how the harm to nature is assessed and remediated in transnational ecological litigation, with a focus on Europe.   

She holds a Ph.D. in Law and Economics from the Universities of Rotterdam, Bologna and Hamburg on the “Law and Economics of Environmental Damage Assessment”; an LL.M. on the Economic Analysis of European Law (ELEA program) from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium; an LL.M. in EU Law from the University of Lecce, Italy. She is a lawyer admitted to the Italian bar since 2017. From 2023 to 2025, she was a lecturer in environmental law at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, coordinating courses on international and EU environmental law for social and natural scientists. Since September 2025, she is a lead author for the IPBES methodology assessment on biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning and ecological connectivity (2025-2027), working on Chapter 6 (Policy). She has published papers on the assessment of environmental damage and on liability for environmental and climate damage from a legal and economic perspective. In 2023, she received the annual award of the Italian Society of Law and Economics (SIDE) for her paper “Climate Change? L’Addition, s’il vous plaît! A Comparative Law and Economics Perspective on the Calculation of Damages.”

Contact: francesca.leucci@vub.be

Melissa Alberini

Research Assistant

Melissa Alberini is a Research Assistant , she holds a Master’s degree in Global Security and Strategy and a postgraduate in Global Risk Analysis and Crisis Management from the Brussels School of Governance (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), as well as a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Global Affairs from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She contributes to the project’s database by coding data on environmental disputes, legal proceedings, and the actors involved. She also contributes to the project’s dissemination and digital presence with the creation and management of the website.

Her academic work focused on the intersection of security and human rights, with particular attention to migration in the Central Mediterranean. Her broader interests include EU policymaking, crisis analysis, and the role of governance frameworks in shaping responses to transnational challenges. She is particularly interested in producing research that bridges academic insight and policy practice. 

Contact: melissa.alberini@vub.be