Irene Musselli

Researcher · Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern · WTO Law · Trade · Human Rights · Environmental Governance

ORCID

My career path has been deliberately unconventional, combining fieldwork and policy research with academic pursuits to build a broad foundation.

After graduating at the top of my law school, I pursued advanced education in development cooperation (University of Pavia) and international economic law (LL.M., LSE), followed by a UN Fellowship in Cairo. I then spent twelve years in the UN system working across Africa and Asia, serving as lead or co-drafter of twelve analytical reports and contributing to intergovernmental processes at the intersection of law, commodity policy, and trade diplomacy.

Driven by a desire for greater intellectual independence, I completed a PhD at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern (summa cum laude) alongside my UN work, before joining the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE). There, I further developed my research at the nexus of trade, human rights, and environmental governance, strengthening my critical and interdisciplinary approach.

This rich, non-linear trajectory has equipped me with a distinctive skill set spanning legal doctrinal analysis, interdisciplinary research, and high-level policy engagement.

Prices, awards, and competitive selections

  • Admission to Ghislieri College, Pavia
  • Prize “Sottotenente Enrico Griziotti” – Overall Best Performance, Law, academic years 1996–97 and 1997-98
  • Bank Cariplo prize – Top-ranking student, University of Pavia, Law, academic year 1997-98
  • Università degli Studi di Milano, Scholarship for post-graduate studies abroad, 1999–2000
  • UN Fellowship recipient, Italian Fellowships Programme
  • UN Junior Professional Officer (JPO), Italian JPO Programme
  • University of Bern, ALL Award for Outstanding Teaching, 2025

Research projects and publications: See Irene Musselli (0000-0002-6532-1855) - ORCID

The articles I have enjoyed writing the most so far are:

  1. Musselli, Irene. 2024. ‘WTO Law and Environmental Processes and Production Methods (PPMs): A Deconstruction’. Indian Journal of International Economic Law 15 (1): Article 5. https://doi.org/10.55496/JFEE3726.
  2. Musselli, Irene, and Gabi Sonderegger. 2025. ‘Trade and Biodiversity Loss: Disentangling the Complexities for Effective Policy Action’. Ecology and Society 30 (3). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-16124-300301.
  3. Musselli, Irene, and Claudia Ituarte-Lima. 2026. ‘Biodiversity, EU Pesticides Law, and Trade: Deconstructing World Trade Organization Delegates’ Concerns through a Human Rights Lens’. Transnational Environmental Law, January 6, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102525100150.

Teaching experience:

  • Adjunct professor, Environmental and Food Law, Università degli Studi di Milano, academic years 2022-2025
  • Lecturer, University of Bern (various CDE study programmes)
  • Expert, Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (SUPSI), Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS), Cooperazione e Sviluppo (CS) – since

Subject-matter expertise and ongoing research:

I have developed recognized expertise in pesticide regulation, commodity governance, and the interaction between WTO law, human rights law, and international environmental law. My research generates original insights that are gaining traction in both academic and policy arenas.

In pesticide risk regulation, I interrogate the “science-based regulation” paradigm in EU and Swiss frameworks, discussing how it obscures uncertainty and a possible misalignment between legal protection goals and administrative practice. In parallel, I examine how WTO and human rights law respond unevenly to evolving understandings of chemical toxicity, while identifying procedural avenues to bridge fragmented regimes. My collaborative work under the Biotrade project has informed standard-setting through engagement with UN Human Rights mechanisms and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In commodity price regulation, my monograph challenges the binary between market-based and interventionist approaches. My subsequent work advances hybrid regulatory models that embed rule-based pricing within public–private supply chain governance. I continue to test and fine-tune this framework through transdisciplinary collaboration with private sector actors. Within the sor4d CARE project, this research contributes directly to debates on innovative pricing mechanisms in the Ethiopian coffee sector, demonstrating a clear pathway from theory to implementation.

In WTO law and the trade–sustainability nexus, I advance critical lines of inquiry that challenge entrenched assumptions. At UNCTAD, I questioned the developed/developing country dichotomy underlying Special and Differential Treatment, highlighting its failure to capture intra-group heterogeneity and South–South trade-offs. My academic work further critiques the notion of “harnessing trade for biodiversity”, exposing structural tensions between trade rationales and agrobiodiversity. By introducing critical legal methodologies into WTO analysis, my research reveals a profound disconnect between WTO law and human rights law constructs, and foregrounds power-related challenges associated with the indeterminacy of open-textured trade rules, the limits of a ‘systemic integration’ approach to trade law, and a contested science-policy interface.