Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, LL.M, is a senior international lawyer and heads the Economic Law & Policy programme of the International Institute on Sustainable Development (IISD).
In this role, she works with developing country governments across Africa, Asia and Latin America in relation to bilateral and regional investment treaty negotiations, investor-state contracts (with a particular focus on mining and agriculture), model investment treaties and foreign investment laws.
Nathalie has extensive legal, policy, and training experience in the area of international trade, investment, sustainable development, human rights, international environmental law and arbitration.
She previously worked as an attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington and Geneva, where she also managed the office. Earlier, she was a fellow at the International Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center and worked in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a legal reform project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and for the Australian law firm Phillips Fox. In Switzerland Nathalie is admitted to the Bar of Basel and has worked for the Justice Department, Berne, in the Section for International Law.
She is based in Geneva and is fluent in English, German, and French.