Patricia Wouters

Member, Board of Governors

Patricia Wouters (Canada) is the Founding Director of the International Water Law Academy at the China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies (CIBOS) of Wuhan University, China.

She joined the Board in April 2023.

Wouters, a former practicing litigation lawyer in Canada, has 30 years’ experience in the field of public international law, specializing in transboundary water cooperation. She was founding director of the Dundee UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy, and Science, which grew out of the International Water Law Research Institute which she established in 1997 at the University of Dundee, Scotland.

Wouters has published extensively, primarily on the rules of international law that govern transboundary freshwater, presenting her research around the globe. She has served on a number of international advisory boards (public and private sector) and provided expert inputs to many international and national organizations, including the United Nations, World Bank, Global Water Partnership (serving on the TEC), and World Economic Forum. Wouters has consulted directly on transboundary water issues across Asia, including Central Asia, Africa and North America. She has actively recruited graduate students from these regions throughout this international work.

Wouters currently focuses on building communities of scholars around the globe. She continues to supervise graduate students and to actively support emerging scholars in water law, a discipline she considers to be integral to enhancing opportunities for effective transboundary water cooperation.