Dr Kate Wilkinson Cross

Kate Wilkinson Cross is a socio-legal researcher focussing on international environmental law. At present, her research centres on discourses of technology, modernisation and the commoditisation of knowledge in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Her research into ecological modernisation examines the prioritisation of technological innovation and the interconnections between technology, traditional knowledge and security within the CBD. Further areas of research include ecofeminist studies of international environmental law, focussing on the principle of intergenerational equity in the UNFCCC. Other areas of interest include environmental security, ecofeminist legal theory, statelessness, and desertification.

Kate teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels including International Law, International Environmental Law, and Gender and the Law. She is module leader for International Law and Gender and the Law at undergraduate level. She is also Programme Leader for International Law, International Human Rights Law, and Environmental Law & Practice LLMs by distance learning.

Kate joined Leicester De Montfort University Law School in January 2016 and received her PhD from Sheffield University in August 2016. Her doctoral researched examined the securitisation of the environment in international environmental law. She obtained an LLM in International and European Law from Sheffield University in 2008 and an LLB from the University of Sussex in 2007. 

Institute for Law, Justice and Society

Centre for Research on Accountability, Governance and Sustainability

Forthcoming

Wilkinson Cross K and Kingi P, ‘Fonua Cultural Statelessness in the Pacific: Climate Induced Migration and Displacement’ in Bloom T and Kingston LN (eds), Statelessness and Governance (Manchester University Press)

Published

See all of Kate Wilkinson Cross's publications on DORA.

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Technological Innovations Tackling Biodiversity Loss: Solutions or Misdirection?’ (2019) 1(1) Law, Technology & Humans 100 - 128 https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.v1i1.1220

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Comparing the Transformative Potentials of the FCCC and the CCD: An Ecofeminist Exploration’ (2018) 30(1) Denning LJ 5-54 https://doi.org/10.5750/dlj.v30i1.1583

K Wilkinson, ‘Payment for Ecosystem Services and the Green Economy: Green Washing or Something New?’ (2014) 5(2) JHRE 168-191 https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2014.03.04

Kate welcomes enquiries from those wishing to read for a PhD degree in any of the areas where she has research interests. These include:

• Ecofeminist theory and feminist legal theory
• Ecological modernisation/technological optimism in legal regimes
• International biodiversity law
• International climate change law
• International environmental law (desertification, sustainable development, effectiveness, gendered nature of IEL)
• International legal responses to food and environmental security
• Legal discourse analysis

Gender and Law

International environmental law

International Law

LLB (University of Sussex)

LLM (University of Sheffield) 

PhD (University of Sheffield)

PGCLTHE: Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (De Montfort University)

Socio-Legal Studies Association

UK Environmental Law Association

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

R Akhtar and K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Patriarchy as Corruption: How Gender Imbalance Impacts on Rights in the Family and the Environment’ (Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Leeds, 3-5 April 2019)

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Comparing the Transformative Potentials of the FCCC and the CCD: An Ecofeminist Exploration’ (Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Leeds, 3-5 April 2019)

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Technological Innovations Tackling Biodiversity Loss: Solutions or Misdirection?’ (Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Leeds, 3-5 April 2019)

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Comparing the Transformative Potentials of the FCCC and the CCD: An Ecofeminist Exploration’ (University of the South Pacific, Port Vila, August 2018)

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Critiquing Ideologies in International Environmental Law’ (Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Newcastle upon Tyne, 6-7 April 2017)

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Critiquing the Ideologies That Inform the Development of International Environmental Law’ (Leicester - Modena Conference: A Dialogue on Law and rights, Modena, 20-21 April 2017)

K Wilkinson Cross, ‘Observations from the Negotiating Floor: Indigenous Rights at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention’ (Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Newcastle upon Tyne 5-7 April 2017)

K Wilkinson, ‘International Environmental Law through an Ecofeminist Lens: Are Contemporary Responses to Environmental Problems Masking the North-South Divide?’ (Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Lancaster, 5-7 April 2016)

Wilkinson K and A Ali, ‘Gender Mainstreaming in International Law: Case Studies on Women, Religion and the Environment’ (Troubling Gender: The Question of Multiple Identities, University of Sheffield, May 2013)

K Wilkinson, ‘Equality, Gender & the Future We Want (2012): An Ecofeminist Comment on the UN Conference on Sustainable Development’ (UCL-KCL Postgraduate Environmental Law Symposium, UCL, London, October 2012)

K Wilkinson, ‘An Ecofeminist Critique of Contemporary Multilateral Environmental Agreements’ (Poster presented at the 1st Contemporary Challenges of International Environmental Law Conference, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 2012)

K Wilkinson, ‘Assumptions of Violence in Gender-Mainstreaming Practices’ (Violence Symposium, Centre for Criminological Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, January 2012)

K Wilkinson, ‘What Can Ecofeminism Contribute Towards Multilateral Global Governance within the Environment?’ (6th CIPL Workshop, Connecting International and Public Law, En/Gendering Governance: From the Local to the Global, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia, August 2012)

John Wincott (October 2020 -), 'A critical analysis of the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009: Pathways to ‘Net Zero’ greenhouse gas emissions for the UK' (1st Supervisor) 

British Academy Small Research Grant: ‘International Law and Indigenous Communities: Traditional Knowledge, Technology and Food Security’, October 2020 – September 2022. Principal Investigator.

Examining distinctions between ecological modernisation and sustainable development in the Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity’ DMU Sustainable Development Goals Research Leave, January 2021 – July 2021. Principal Investigator

‘Examining the Commoditisation of the Environment and Traditional Knowledge in the Convention on Biological Diversity Regime’, Higher Education Innovation Fund, October 2016 – July 2017. Project lead.

Gal Gadot, Amena Khan and the Perils of Being Famous, Female and Having Political Opinions, The Conversation, Rajnaara Akhtar and Kate Wilkinson Cross, 26 January 2018