Fondation Hélios PhD Fellow

Location
Institut d’études européennes (bureau R41.4.103)
Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 39
1050 Bruxelles
Belgique

Mailing address
Université libre de Bruxelles
Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 50 - CP 172/01
1050 Bruxelles
Belgique

mpetel@sjd.law.harvard.edu

Bio

Matthias Petel is a postdoctoral researcher at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), also affiliated with Harvard Law School. He completed his doctoral dissertation in June 2025 at UCLouvain on the judicialization of climate governance. His other research focuses on human rights and climate change, climate reparations, and the political and legal dimensions of the recognition of the rights of nature.

Research presentation

Climate diplomacy has so far been primarily analyzed through the lens of international negotiations conducted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The research project, led by Romain Weikmans, aims to broaden this focus by exploring the increasing integration of climate issues into other areas of foreign policy - such as trade, energy, finance, security, and development cooperation. Matthias Petel’s research specifically investigates how the climate crisis is reshaping the dynamics of international negotiations on sovereign debt: restructuring mechanisms, potential debt cancellation, payment suspension in the event of climate-related disasters, and more broadly, the reform of the international financial system.

Research interests

  • International law and climate change
  • Judicialization of climate governance
  • Sovereign debt and the climate crisis
  • Climate reparations

Selected publications

  • S. Bookman & M. Petel, Climate Litigation & Climate Justice: The Distributional Implications of Systemic Rights-Based Climate Actions in Europe, Global Justice: Theory, Practice, Rhetoric 14 (2), 2024, 51-85
  • M. Petel, The illusion of harmony: Power, politics, and distributive implications of rights of nature, Transnational Environmental Law 13 (1), 2024, 12-34
  • M. Petel & N. Vander Putten, Economic, social and cultural rights and their dependence on the economic growth paradigm: Evidence from the ICESCR system, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 39 (1), 2021, 53-72
  • M. Petel, Droits humains et contentieux climatique: une alliance prometteuse contre l’inertie politique, Journal européen des droits de l’homme, 2021, 143-175
  • M. Petel, La nature: d’un objet d’appropriation à un sujet de droit. Réflexions pour un nouveau modèle de société, Revue interdisciplinaire d'études juridiques 80 (1), 2018, 207-239