Vanessa Gischkow Garbini Visiting Fellow
Vanessa is a Brazilian attorney in the fields of international law, human rights, and animal law. She got her LLB cum laude in Law from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (2013), where she also specialized in Public and Private International Law (2017) and earned her Master’s Degree in International, European and Comparative Law (2019). She also holds a Diplôme d’Université in Comparative and European Law of Contracts and Consumer Law from the University of Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France (2011).
In 2022, Vanessa earned her LLM Degree from Lewis & Clark’s Animal Law Program, becoming the first Brazilian to accomplish such a Degree. During her LLM at Lewis & Clark, she joined the International Coalition for Animal Protection (ICAP), a team of international law and animal law practitioners and academics who are working on a draft treaty (Convention on Animal Protection, or CAP) to advance the well-being of humans, animals and the environment.
Academic research has always been one of Vanessa’s main interests. In the scope of her activities, she was awarded DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarships to study international law at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (2008-2009) and refugee law at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2018), both in Germany.
During her visiting fellowship at Harvard, she will be working on a critical study of the Environmental Justice theory. The aim of this project is to demonstrate how advancing animal welfare meets Environmental Justice’s goals and, therefore, should be encompassed by said theory. At the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program, Vanessa will focus on industrial animal agriculture, CAFOs, and the unfair distribution of environmental burdens to vulnerable communities.