Dr. Valerie Oosterveld

Dr. Valerie Oosterveld is a full Professor at the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law. She is an expert in public international law. Her research and writing focus on two sub-fields of international law: international criminal law and outer space law. She has taught outer space law for 17 years, first as a module of Public International Law, and now as a full standalone course. Her research on outer space law includes: international environmental space law; space resource extraction and use; state responsibility in space; use of force in space; peace and security in space; a feminist analysis of space law, and Canadian space law. Valerie is a faculty member of Western’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, and Acting Director of Western’s Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. She is a member of the Canadian Partnership for International Justice. Before joining Western Law, Valerie served in the Legal Affairs Bureau of Global Affairs Canada. In this role, she provided legal advice on international criminal law, including issues related to armed conflict. She earned her JSD and LLM from Columbia Law School, her LLB from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and her BSocSc from the University of Ottawa.