Paolo Farah

Professor Paolo Davide Farah is a Visiting Professor of Law at University Pittsburgh School of Law. In the academic year 2021-2022, he taught Global Trade Law and Global Environmental Law. In the academic year 2022-2023, he will be teaching Transnational Environmental Law (Fall Term 2022-2023), Transnational Trade Law (Fall Term 2022-2023), Commercial Transactions in Goods (Spring Term 2022-2023) and the Intersession Course on the Law of China (January 2023).

Professor Paolo Davide Farah is also an Associate Professor (with tenure) at West Virginia University, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, having joined the faculty in 2014.

Professor Paolo Davide Farah is Founder, President and Director of gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development.

He is an “Internationally Renowned Professor/Distinguished Professor of Law” (Full Professor level) at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), Law School, Beijing, China.

He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law (IIEL), Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC, USA.

He is a Member of the Board of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) and since 2016 he has been the Chair of the ESIL Interest Group on International Environmental Law (elected for an additional term until 2024). He is also the Chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on International Environmental Law and the Chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on International Law and Technology. From 2017 to 2020, he was Chair for the ASIL Interest Group on Intellectual Property Law.

Since 2014, Professor Farah has been an Appointed Member of the International Law Association – ILA Committees on Sustainable Development and the Green Economy in International Trade Law and ILA Committee on Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development.

He acts as Editor-in-Chief for the Book Series “Transnational Law and Governance” and for the Book Series of “Global Law and Sustainable Development” (in English) published by Taylor & Francis, Routledge (New York/London). He is Co-Editor for the Series on “Global Issues” published by Palgrave MacMillan (New York/London). He is also Editor-in-Chief for the Book Series “Studies on Globalization”, published by Wolters Kluwer (CEDAM) for Books in Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and other non-English languages.

He was a Visiting Scholar (2011–2012) at Harvard Law School, East Asian Legal Studies Program. As Scientific Director, since 2006, he has been coordinating the Summer Law Institute in China – Executive Education Training Program held in China. He was an International Consultant and Legal Advisor for projects implemented for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), for the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and Commerce and for the OECD. He has previously worked at the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization in Geneva and was an Associate Lawyer of Baker & McKenzie Law Firm, Milan, Italy.

He is teaching and researching in public policy and public administration, democratic context of public administration, legal and political foundations, international law, climate change, international trade, intellectual property rights, business and human rights, social justice, sustainable development, energy and environmental law and policy. Professor Farah is an expert in the interaction among trade, economic globalization and non-trade concerns, such as sustainable development, energy, environment and human rights.

He has variously taught classes in different institutions on public international law, international economic law and WTO law, European Law, Comparative law, and Chinese law in Italy (2003-2011), in the UK as Senior Lecturer in Law – Associate Professor (2012-2014), USA and China as Visiting Professor (since 2008). 

Professor Farah has more than 60 peer-reviewed and US law review articles or book chapters, 9 books and 6 journal special issues published or forthcoming and 20 additional peer-reviewed publications in Italian, French, Spanish and Chinese including a book published by the Law Press China. He has presented his work to more than 150 international conferences and workshops.

Professor Farah was a Guest Editor-in-Chief for the SSCI – Journal of World Energy Law and Business (Oxford University Press), Guest Editor-in-Chief for SSCI Journal Sustainability.

Professor Farah’ work has appeared or is forthcoming, among others, in such journals as Arizona State Law Journal, UMKC Law Review, Oregon Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, West Virginia Law Review, Georgetown International Environmental law Review, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, Brooklyn Journal of International Law, Journal of International Economic Law (Oxford University Press), Journal of World Energy Law and Business (Oxford University Press), Journal of World Trade (Kluwer Law International), Leiden Journal of International Law (Cambridge University Press), MDPI Sustainability, Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier), Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy, Legal Issues of Economic Integration (Kluwer Law International), European Energy and Environmental Law Review (Kluwer Law International),

Professor Farah has published with such publishers as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Taylor & Francis (Routledge Publishing), Edward Elgar, Springer, Elsevier, Palgrave MacMillan.

He is coordinating or has coordinated and led as Principal Investigator or Major Co-Principal Investigator externally-funded research grants for an overall amount of $ 2 million.

He graduated with a Maitrise (J.D.) in International and European Law from Paris Ouest La Defense Nanterre University (France), LL.M. in European Legal Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium) and a Dual Ph.D in international law from Aix-Marseille University (France) and University of Milan (Italy).

He speaks, reads and writes: Italian (native), English (fluent), French (fluent), and Chinese.