Executive Council

Executive Chairman
Stefano Burchi

Tel +39.063973.0713
stefano.burchi@gmail.com

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) positions

Since 1983:
Legal Officer, then since 1992, Senior Legal Officer, then since 2007 Chief, Development Law Service, Legal Office, Rome, Italy. Retired on 31 December 2008

Previous appointments

1979-83:
Economic Affairs Officer (water law), United Nations, New York;

1973-79:
Legal Officer, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (National Oil & Gas Corporation), Rome, Italy

 Achievements

Stefano Burchi is an expert in comparative and international water law. From 1983 to 2008, he served in the Development Law Service of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization where he concluded his tenure as Service Chief. While at FAO, Mr. Burchi served as in-house legal expert and advisor on domestic and international water law to FAO member countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. His work included reviewing, analysing, and drafting principal and subsidiary water resources legislation, training in water law, and advising on legal and institutional arrangements for transboundary freshwaters. In addition, Mr. Burchi advised various organizations and programs on global and transboundary water issues, including the U.N. International Law Commission, UNESCO/ISARM Programme, and the World Bank. Since retiring from FAO, Mr. Burchi has taken up a variety of water law consultancies with UNESCO, FAO, GEF, the EU (SWIM-SM) and the governments of Bhutan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority, and Qatar. He has also assumed the chairmanship of the International Association for Water Law.

Mr. Burchi has authored numerous publications on water resources law and administration, including FAO Legislative Study Nos. 52 and 80 on “Preparing national regulations for water resources management: Principles and Practice”, and Legislative Study No. 86 on “Groundwater in International Law – Compilation of Treaties and Other Legal Instruments”. Since 1995, he has contributed an annual Fresh Water section to the “Year in Review” feature of the Yearbook of International Environmental Law, and since 2001, an annual comparative water law Year-End-Review to the Journal of Water Law.

Mr. Burchi holds an LL.B. from La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and an M.S. from the University of Michigan. He is fluent in English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Education

LL.M. – Harvard Law School, USA, 1977
M.S. – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, 1978
Law Degree – University of Rome, Italy, 1972

Deputy Chairman & Editor
Marcella Nanni

marcellananni@libero.it

Summary of Professional Experience

Dr. Marcella Nanni is an international expert in water law and administration and related disciplines. To date, she has provided expert advice in this field to a number of governments and international river basin institutions within the framework of projects financed by international organizations such as the FAO and the European Union, and by bilateral donors. This advice has covered the development of draft water legislation and international agreements, the restructuring of water resources management institutions, water law implementation requirements and the formulation and conduct of capacity-building programmes, amongst other things.

In 2007 she produced the second edition, revised and updated, of major textbook ‘Principles of Water Law and Administration, National and International,’ by Dante A. Caponera (1921-2003), which was first published in 1992 by Balkema, Rotterdam. She is the author, or co-author, of a number of articles in law and other journals.

Member
Gabriel Eckstein

gabrieleckstein@law.tamu.edu

Present position

Gabriel Eckstein is a Professor of Law specializing in water, environmental, natural resources and international law at Texas A&M University School of Law in Fort Worth, TX, USA. In addition, he is CEO of International H2O Solutions, an international consultancy focusing on legal, policy and management issues related to global and transboundary fresh water resource, and is Director of the International Water Law Project.

Previous appointments

Previously, Professor Eckstein served as: Professor of Water Law and Director of the Texas Tech Center for Water Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock, TX, USA (2003 to 2010); Senior Counsel for CropLife America, an agrochemicals industry trade association, in Washington, DC (2000-2003); and a litigator in private practice working on environmental, toxic tort and asbestos cases (1998-2000).

Achievements

Professor Eckstein is a recognized expert in international and U.S. water and environmental law and policy. He has served as legal counsel in international litigation over freshwater resources, and as an expert advisor and consultant to various national governments, UN agencies, the World Bank, and other organizations. He has published dozens of articles, book chapters, and books on water and environmental issues. He currently also serves as President of the International Water Resources Association.

Education

Professor Eckstein holds: both a J.D. (1995) and LL.M. in Environmental Law (1997) from American University Washington College of Law, a M.S. in International Affairs (1992) from Florida State University, and a dual Bachelor Degree in Geology and International Relations (1989) from Kent State University.

Member
Lilian del Castillo – Laborde

lclab@fibertel.com.ar

CV abstract – 2009

Mrs. Lilian del Castillo-Laborde is a lawyer and PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she chairs courses on ‘International Jurisdictions’, ‘Jurisdictional Immunities’, ‘Environment and Human Rights’, among others. She is also counselor at the Argentine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in shared natural resources matters. She recently published the books Water Fora, From Mar del Plata to Istambul (in Spanish) and The Río de la Plata and its Maritime Front Legal Regim. Among her latest articles, she published ‘Environmental awareness for Arctic and Antarctic regions,’ ‘La Plata Basin’ and ‘Case-law on International Watercourses’. She is a member of the International Law Association, the American Society of International Law, the International Water Resources Association, the Argentine Council for Foreign Relations, and other academic institutions.

Member
Ariella D’Andrea

ariella.dandrea@gmail.com

CV

Ariella D’Andrea is a natural resources lawyer specializing in fisheries, aquaculture and water resources law and is currently working with the Pacific Community-SPC. She has been working as legal expert on development projects since 2002, mainly with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) but also with other organizations such as the European Union and the World Bank. She has served as Legal Officer in charge of an FAO regional project on water legislation in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) from 2009 to 2011.

Over the years, Ms D’Andrea’s expertise has focused on the review and drafting of natural resources legislation, institutional arrangements, legal publications and country studies, including water users’ associations and irrigation management transfer, customary water resources management and groundwater. Ms D’Andrea has co-authored the English and Spanish editions of an FAO manual on the preparation of water resources regulations published, respectively, in 2003 and 2012 (FAO Legislative Studies No. 80 and No. 106). She has also co-edited two Special Issue of Water International – the Official journal of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) – on water law and governance in 2012 and 2016 (Volume 37, Issue 6, and Volume 41, Issue 6, Taylor & Francis).

Admitted to the Italian Bar, Ms D’Andrea holds a Law degree (laurea magistrale) and a Master’s degree in communication science (master di II livello) from La Sapienza University of Rome. She is fluent in four languages (English, French, Italian and Spanish), which has allowed her to visit over 60 countries worldwide to carry out legal assistance missions or participate in international conferences and meetings on freshwater and aquatic resources law.