Maria Antonia Tigre

Dr. Maria Antonia Tigre is the Global Climate Litigation Fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. Prior to the Sabin Center, she was a senior attorney at the Environment Program of the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice. Dr. Tigre was previously a fellow at the World Resources Institute. The fellowship followed several years working in private practice in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dr. Tigre serves as the Deputy Director of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment, where she works with scholars and practitioners in the region to study the interface between human rights and the environment. In addition, Dr. Tigre is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Dr. Tigre is the author of several publications on regional and international environmental law. She specifically focuses on issues concerning environmental rights, the reshaping of the existing framework of international environmental law, and climate litigation. Originally from Brazil, she also researches the environmental protection of the Amazon ecosystem, emphasizing regional cooperation. She is a TEDx speaker and a frequent speaker at conferences and symposiums.

• LLB, Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• LLM, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (magna cum laude)
• SJD, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University

• Environmental Law Seminar: Human Rights and the Environment LAW 797M

View all publications on Google Scholar

• Just Transition Litigation in Latin America: An Initial Categorization of Climate Litigation Cases Amid the Energy Transition, (with numerous authors) (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (January 2023)
• Exploring the Bedrock of Earth Jurisprudence, 22 Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion 223-313 (2022)
• Reframing Global Biodiversity Protection after COVID-19: Is International Environmental Law up to the task?, 23 Vermont Envt. L. J. 123 (2022) (with N. Urzola and V. Lichet)
• COVID-19 and Amazonia: Right-based approaches for the pandemic response, 30(2) Rev. of Eur., Comp. and Int’l Env’tl
• The 2017 Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion: changing the paradigm for international environmental law in the Anthropocene, 12(1) J. Hum. Rts. & Envt. 24 (with N. Urzola) (2021)
• Gaps in International Environmental Law: Toward a Global Pact for the Environment, (ELI Press, 2020)
• Building a Regional Adaptation Strategy for Amazon Countries, 19(4) Int’l Env’t Agreements: Pol., L. and Econ. 411 (2019)
• Regional Cooperation in Amazonia: A Comparative Environmental Law Analysis (Brill⏐Nijhoff, 2017)
• Cooperation for Climate Mitigation in Amazonia: Brazil’s Emerging Role as a Regional Leader, 5(2) Transnat’l Env’t Law 401 (2016)

Climate Change, International Environmental Law, Climate Litigation, Human Rights and the Environment