I am interested in the influence and evolution of environmental norms in trade relations between countries. My research has identified how economic integration, primarily through trade agreements, shapes legislative and policy formation; and how governments and international trade agreements (WTO and FTAs) reconcile support for trade liberalisation and environmental protection, rhetorically, strategically, and through legal tests applied in dispute settlement. I have also examined and proposed models for climate and environmental cooperation through international trade agreements. 

I have argued that environmental problems, often emergent and causally complex, pose challenges for effective regulatory design and also the logic underpinning the non-discrimination principle of the WTO. I have also located the influence of WTO disciplines on EU regulatory design, highlighting how legal tests developed in the WTO can have unintended, sometimes surprising, consequences.

I am currently working on an EU Horizon 2020 grant project on how EU Free Trade Agreements and wider trade policy reflects the goal of securing sustainable agricultural practices. I am also on the management team of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy, an ESRC-funded research centre commencing in April 2022.

I welcome PhD applicants for supervision in the areas of international trade and investment law and environmental law and policy.