Biographical Sketch

Birgit Hollaus is a teaching and research associate at the Institute for Law and Governance and the Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). She holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree in business law from WU Vienna. Birgit is a member of the European Environmental Law Forum (EELF) and the Climate Change Centre Austria Working Group on Climate Change Law (ARGE KlimaSchutzRecht).

Alongside her academic work, she has gained insightful experience in the public sector as an intern at the environmental law division of Vienna’s environmental protection authority (MA 22). She also built expertise in an international work setting as a legal intern at renowned environmental law NGO ClientEarth (London). Prior to joining WU, she has worked for Vasko+Partner Civil Engineers where she has acquired invaluable project management skills.

Research Interests

Birgit’s research interests include questions of national and European environmental, planning and infrastructure law, in particular aspects of public participation and access to justice in these areas. Her previous work ranges from an enquiry into EU law-informed species protection legislation in urban environments to an investigation of risk governance in the EU, using the example of genetically modified organisms. In recent years she has focused specifically on the Aarhus Convention and its implications for public participation and access to justice in environmental matters at the EU and national level.

Birgit's doctoral thesis centred on compliance mechanisms in multilateral environmental agreements such as the Paris Agreement or CITES. In doing so, she investigated the extent to which EU law permits the green leader EU to interact with these mechanisms and their non-compliance decisions. This overarching interest in the (inter)relations between international and EU (environmental) law continues as a theme in her further research.

Publications and Research Projects

A comprehensive list of Birgit’s publications and the research projects she is involved in can be found in the PURE documentation.