Bio
Valerie Oosterveld is a full professor at Western University's Faculty of Law and a faculty member of Western's Institute for Earth and Space Exploration. Her research and publications focus on outer space law and international criminal law.
She currently serves as Western Research Chair in International Criminal Justice and as Acting Director of Western University’s Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. She is a member of the SSHRC-funded Canadian Partnership for International Justice, which won the 2023 Governor-General’s Innovation Award and the 2022 SSHRC Impact Partnership Award. She was awarded the 2022 Royal Society of Canada Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies and the 2023 Canadian Association of Law Teachers Academic Excellence Award.
Before joining Western Law in 2005, Valerie served in the Legal Affairs Bureau of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In this role, she provided legal advice on international criminal accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, especially with respect to international criminal tribunals. She was a member of the Canadian delegation to the International Criminal Court negotiations and subsequent Assembly of States Parties. She also served on the Canadian delegation to the 2010 Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in Kampala, Uganda.