Christine Frison Christine (°1980) studied Law, with a specialization in public international law, at the University of Montpellier (France) where she graduated (cum laude) in 2002. During her undergraduate studies, she spent one year at the Nottingham Trent University as an Erasmus exchange programme student. Afterwards, she did a Master I (Maîtrise) at the Université Lyon III (France) in International and Trade Law (n°2 out of all Master students). She then did a Master II (Diplôme d’Etudes Spécialisées) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) in Public International Law.

During her studies, she completed an internship at the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI, Rome) as well as at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO, Rome). These internships increased her interest for sustainable development and biodiversity issues and lead her to conduct research on the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and other related genetic resources access and benefit-sharing issues (ABS).

Since 2004, she works as a Legal Research Fellow with the CISDL, where she conducts research in the field of international biodiversity law (Convention on Biological Diversity, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture) and international biosafety law (Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety). She is working on the Biosafety Law project of CISDL to design regulatory assessment tools, and assist francophone countries in developing national laws in the area of biosafety, in order to implement the Cartagena Protocol.

Ms. Frison has represented CISDL at numerous United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meetings.

She also works as an ABS legal advisor for the Belgian Federal Ministry of Environment, where she is an active member of the Belgian ABS Contact Group. In January 2006, she conducted a national survey for the Belgian Federal Ministry of Environment on The use of genetic resources by Belgian users and on the degree of knowledge and application of international biodiversity obligations by these users (mainly access and benefit-sharing measures of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Bonn Guidelines) in collaboration with the Centre for Philosophy of Law (CPDR) at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium). She is regularly part of the Belgian ABS delegation in various ABS related international meetings (FAO, CBD, WIPO, ITPGRFA, etc.).

In December 2006, she joined the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (CIR), at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven, Belgium) to carry out her Ph.D. research under the supervision of Prof. Van Overwalle in agricultural biodiversity. More specifically, she is analyzing the relationship between IPRs and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. She carries out her PhD research in collaboration with the CPDR under the supervision of Prof. Tom Dedeurwaerdere.