Job description

Research fields and expertise:

Margherita Paola Poto is a Research Professor at the Faculty of Law, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway and has taught Administrative Law for more than twenty years at the University of Turin, Italy. She obtained her LLM degree in Law from the University of Turin in 2001, and in 2006 completed her Ph.D. in Public and Constitutional Law at the University of Pavia’s Department of Political Sciences (Dissertation: Independent Administrative Authorities Supervising the Financial Markets).

Having coordinated more than 35 international research projects worldwide, Margherita focuses her research and academic activities along internationally acknowledged research lines, moving from a unidisciplinary approach (law) to cross-disciplinary, co-created, and community-based research. Her work critically reflects on the colonialism of knowledge production, explores the co-existence of science and indigenous knowledge, and addresses the gap between science and law at the crossroads of climate, food, and planetary health. Her teaching portfolio includes innovative approaches to administrative law, ecological and emotional education and research, indigenous methodology, public law for economics, critical legal thinking, ethics, and fraud. She has published more than 224 scholarly works, including 15 books  and more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in top journals. Admitted to the Bar in Turin, Italy, in 2004, Margherita is also a lawyer who has served as a legal consultant for international organizations, such as the International Training Center of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank.

Most recent publications:

M. P. POTO, E. L. ENYEW, J. ANAYA, Indigenous Peoples Law and Climate Change, Kapittel 12, in Klimarettbok Internasjonal, europeisk og norsk klimarett mot 2050 (II utgave) ed. H. C. Bugge, C. Voigt, Universitetsforlaget, 2024, ISBN-9788215068336, pp. 276-308.

PANIERI G., POTO, M. P., MURRAY E. M. (ed. by) (2024) Emotional and Ecological Literacy for a More Sustainable Society, Palgrave MacMillan, Springer Nature, ISBN: 978-3-031-56771-1

G. PAROLA, M. P. POTO (2024), eds. Building Bridges For Effective Environmental Participation: The Path Of Law Co-Creation, The Chiquitano Multimodal Format for Disseminating the Escazú Agreement, Human Rights Intervention Series, Palgrave MacMillan ISBN 978-3-031-52790-6; ISSN: 2946-5117; series electronic ISSN:2946-5125.

She was the third most productive researcher in UiT The Arctic University of Norway in 2022 https://uit.no/nyheter/artikkel/kortnytt?p_document_id=820951

Current ongoing projects:

• Ay 2024-2025 EUGLOH UiT, Faculty of Law, Department of Geosciences at UiT and Hamburg University. Seed Money for the Organization of the academic course on Pathways to a healthier planet: New approaches through creativity and experiential learning (Poto, Panieri and Bogusz)
• 2023-2025 Faculty of Law UiT The Arctic University of Norway - The Ocean Incubator Network - PI - UArctic https://en.uit.no/project/oceanincubator 
• 2021-2024 UiT The Arctic University of Norway – An Exchange Program on Empathy Compassion and Care in Water Governance, from the Perspective of Integral Ecology (ECO_CARE) – P.I. - UTFORSK HKDIR 2021-2024 grant 10084 (Norway-Brazil) ECO_CARE
• 2021-2028 University of Otago - Coastal People: Southern Skies. The vision of Coastal People: Southern Skies is flourishing wellness (mauri ora) of coastal communities. Their mission is to connect, understand and restore coastal ecosystems of New Zealand and the Pacific through transformative research, local action and by unlocking potential through new opportunities and pathways to learning – Role: International Expert in Indigenous Law and Water - Tertiary Education Commission, NZ 
• 2021-2025 Sami Research Group UiT - Governance of Land and Natural Resources in Sápmi, a legal approach (GoSapmi, P.I. Ø.Ravna)  - WP 1 Leader on Interaction between international indigenous rights, obligations, and implementation at the national level – Norwegian Research Council: Researcher Project Transformative Research Project, Forsker20 (8 M nok)
• 2020-2024 UiT Norwegian Fishery College- SECURE Novel Marine Resources for Food Security and Food Safety, BFE, Helsefak, Jurfak – Main Legal Investigator and WP Leader – SECURE coordinated by Edel O. Elvevoll

Responsible for stage, practicum and MSCA mentorship

In my career, I have been assigned the supervision and co-supervision of n. 10 PhD projects and the full supervision of more than 250 Master theses in two decades. Recently, I have also been mentoring and supporting the academic career development of 5 postdoctoral researchers (funded by MSCA, DAAD among others). Currently, collaborating with Violeta Radovich (MSCA 2024) on her Postdoctoral Fellowship on Renewable Energy in the High Seas.

PhD Advisory Role

Margherita is currently working together with Mana Tugend (PhD Student, NCLOS) and Mathilde Morel (PhD Student, Faculty of Law, NCLOS and SECURE) on their projects respectively at the crossroads of  ethics of care and indigenous ocean views and food, climate and health.