Nilufer Oral

Nilufer Oral is a member of the Faculty of Law at Istanbul Bilgi University, where she teaches various law courses including international environmental law. She is co-chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law's Specialist Group on Oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs, and is a member of the Board of Governors of the International Ocean Institute in Malta. She is actively involved with the IUCN Mediterranean Governance group. She is also a member of the IUCN Academy Research Committee.

Other professional activities include positions as legal advisor to the Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation at the International Maritime Organization. Most recently she served as legal advisor to the Chief Negotiator for Turkey at the COP 15 and 16 Climate Change meetings. She has also served as a legal advisor to the marine environment division of the Turkish Council of Science.

Nilufer Oral has published on transport issues and protection of the marine environment, with a focus on the Black Sea, the Turkish Straits and the Mediterranean Sea. Selected recent works include, “ Case Concerning Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine) (3 February 2009), The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 25 (2010) 115–141; co-editing an Oceans Specialist Group special issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law entitled “ International Ocean Governance in the 21^st Century: Perspectives from the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law’s Specialist Group on oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs”, “Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Marine Spatial Planning for Hydrocarbon Activities in the Black Sea”, 23 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 453 [Special Issue]; "Oil Transportation Security in the Black Sea and the Turkish Straits" in the Journal of International Logistics and Trade (Vol. 5 No. 1, June 2007); "Straits Used in International Navigation, User Fees and Article 43 of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention" in Ocean Yearbook (Vol. 20, 2006); "Protection of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems In Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Can International Law Meet the Challenge?" in Unresolved Issues and New Challenges to the Law of the Sea: Time Before and Time After (Martinus Nijhoff, 2006); and "Oil Transportation in the Black Sea and Regional Marine Environmental Policy" in The Journal of International Maritime Law (Vol. 11, 2005).

Professor Oral has also spoken at numerous international conferences and symposia. She as has been an invited lecturer at the Rhodes Academy of Oceans law and Policy, and has held visiting scholar positions at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Virginia. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, her J.D. from Santa Clara University, and a D.E.A. (LL.M. in private international law) from the University of Paris, Pantheon.