Elodie Le Gal
PhD Student, Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law
Qualifications
L.L.M (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) in Private International Law / International Business Law
Contact
| Email: | elegal@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Agricultural Economics 1 (W37) AgLaw Centre |
| Phone: | 02 6773 3539 (or +61 2 6773 3539 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 2580 |
| Homepage: | http://invasivebiofuelscrops.webs.com/ |
Elodie Le Gal obtained her Master of Laws (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) in Private International Law/International Business Law from the Pantheon-Assas Faculty of Law, Paris, in 1998. In France, she had broad experience in both the commercial and non-profit sectors, with particular emphasis on sustainability social issues in relation to ethnic communities.
Since arriving in Australia in 2007, she has been involved in projects focusing on conservation finance mechanisms and e-technology professional development programs directed to the farming and rural communities. Elodie was the recipient of a UNE PhD scholarship in 2008 to research the implementation of institutional arrangements incorporating market-based instruments and legislation to address environmental risks associated with invasive weeds. Her PhD thesis seeks to explore the legal and institutional requirements for the design and the implementation of innovative environmental market risk-based instruments to:
- manage invasive species and the loss of biodiversity within Australia, and
- leverage private investment
At this stage of the research, several environmental market-based instruments using risk pricing and risk transfer mechanisms have been identified in the literature as potential mechanisms to address the environmental risks associated with weeds and the resulting loss of biodiversity. Some of them are already in existence to address other types of environmental risks. Others have conceptually been described to specifically control the invasives risk. The research encompasses contract design issues and the institutional arrangements that underpin the regulatory framework necessary to induce the practical feasibility of (one of) these mechanisms.
This PhD program is being undertaken with the support of her Queensland-based industry sponsors, Conservation Farmers Inc. and Williams and Partners Pty Ltd.
Elodie has a strong interest in making technical legal information accessible to a wide range of people.
Research interests
Despite their invasibility features, second-generation biofuels crops can play a key role in the production of bio-ethanol. If imported in Australia, they might generate costly biological pollutions in an already depleted natural environment. While risk management instruments are widely used in the commercial sector, the treatment of risk in environmental weeds policy is primarily underpinned by a simplistic ‘risk-avoidance versus risk-allowance’ binary approach. With Professor Paul Martin, we have developed a conceptual architecture for a risk management model relying on market instruments to manage the bio-fuel weeds risk. Combined with a public/private co-regulatory strategy, this could efficiently address the bio-fuel weeds risk. This model could also be transposable in other NRM areas.
Research interests: Biodiversity conservation – Invasive species - Sustainability issues - Risk mitigation strategies – Innovation –Environmental Law – Natural Resource Management Law