Email ephv567@visitor.nus.edu.sg

Ayelet Berman is Associate Professor (Honorary Visiting) at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and the Lead of the Law & Governance Program at the Asia Centre for Health Security. She also leads the Global Health Law & Governance Program at the NUS Centre for International Law (CIL). Dr. Berman is an international lawyer, and her work focuses on the law and governance aspects of global health and biosecurity. Her expertise also includes global governance, international trade law, and international investment law.

Law has a critical role in public health, global health and biosecurity. Legal and regulatory frameworks can enable, facilitate, or undermine the prevention, preparation, and response to health or biosecurity emergencies. Also, since infectious diseases do not respect borders, regional and international collaboration and agreements are needed. Emerging technologies, such as AI, add to the complexity of many issues. Dr. Berman contributes to this emerging field through engagement, collaborations, research, and teaching.

• NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
• Asia Centre for Health Security
• Centre for International Law

• Law and governance aspects of:
  •  pandemics/public health emergencies
  • biosecurity/synthetic biology/AI
  • pathogen genomics

• Global Health Law
• Global Health Security Law
• Global governance, international organizations
• International law

• Ph.D. summa cum laude with congratulations of the committee (International Law), Graduate Institute, Geneva, 2014
• D.E.A. (International Law), Graduate Institute, Geneva, 2008
• L.L.B magna cum laude, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2001
• Admitted to Israel Bar Association, 2001
• Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, 20

• Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS) Award for Best Ph.D. in International Studies, 2015

• Associate Professor (Honorary Visiting), NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, 2024-present.
• Lead, Law and Governance Program, Asia Centre for Health Security, National University of Singapore, 2024-present.
• Lead, Global Health Law Program, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, 2022-present.
• Senior Research Fellow (International Investment Law Program), Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, 2017-2022
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, 2017-2022
• Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, Graduate Institute, Geneva, 2015-2017
• Research Associate, Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, Graduate Institute, Geneva, 2009-2012
• Associate Lawyer, Sidley Austin LLP, Geneva, 2004-2007
• Associate Lawyer, Herzog, Fox & Neeman, 2000-2003

• Editorial Board, BMJ Public Health, 2024-present
• Third Party Intervention to the European Court of Human Rights, 2023
• Steering Committee Member, One Health Committee, International Law Association, 2022-2023
• Member, Global Health Security Agenda: Legal Preparedness Action Package, 2022-present
• Expert, World Health Organization, Informal Consultations on Legal Aspects of a Proposed Pandemic Treaty, 2022
• Co-chair, International Organizations Interest Group, American Society of International Law, 2020-2023
• Executive Board Member, Tradelab, 2020-2022
• Mentor, Women in International Law, American Society of International Law, 2018-2020
• Member, Academic Friends of international Organizations Partnership, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2016-present

• “Legal Frameworks for Outbreak Preparedness” in Dale Fischer (ed.) Infectious Disease Emergencies: Preparedness and Response (2024, NUS Press) (with Elyssa Liu and Dena Kirpalani) (forthcoming)
• Third Party Intervention to the European Court of Human Rights by Dr. Ayelet Berman and Dr. Marija Jovanovic in the case of Vesna Pešić and Others v Serbia (2023); (Case concerning limitations on movement of elderly during the Covid-19 pandemic)
• Ayelet Berman, Equitable Access Contracts: Building Blocks of a Future  Global Vaccine Strategy, EJIL: Talk! (21 December 2022)
• Negotiating Text of the WHO Pandemic Agreement – Commentary by Ayelet Berman and Kriti Sharma, 23 October 2023.
• The 2023 UNGA High-Level Meeting Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response: Emerging Principles of a Post-Covid-19 Global Health System, with Kriti Sharma.
• White Paper: One Health, International Law Association (ILA) 150th Anniversary, 2023 (with Hélène De Pooter, Gian Luca Burci and others)
• Investment Treaties and the Rule of Law Promise: The Internalization of International Commitments in Asia (ed. with Jansen Calamita) (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
• Rethinking Participation in Global Governance: Voice and Influence after Stakeholder Reforms in Global Finance and Health (ed. with Joost Pauwelyn, Tim Buthe and Martino Maggetti) (Oxford University Press, 2022)
• Global Governance: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Need for Post-COVID-19 Reform: Addressing Challenges to Public Health and Society Through Global Collaboration: White Paper Submitted to the World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (April 2021)
• Closing the Compliance Gap: From Soft to Hard Monitoring Mechanisms under the International Health Regulations, 20(3) Wash. U. Glob. Stud. L. Rev. (2021)
• When Crisis Meets Preparation and Discipline: Singapore’s Successful Response to COVID-19, 20(3) Wash. U. Glob. Stud. L. Rev. (2021) (with Fong Han Tan)
• Between Participation and Capture in International Rulemaking: The WHO Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors, 32(1) European Journal of International Law (2021) 227
• The World Health Organization (WHO) and COVID-19: How Much Legal Authority Does the WHO really Have to Manage the Pandemic? in CIL Blog (2020)
• Industry, Capture and Transnational Standard Setting, 111 American Journal of International Law Unbound (2017) 112
• Taking Foreign Interests into Account: Rulemaking in the U.S. and EU, 15(1) International Journal of Constitutional Law (2017) 235

• Did COVID Originally Leak From a Chinese Lab? Politics May Prevent Us Ever Knowing for Sure, Time Magazine (28 February 2023)
• Pandemic treaty to be front and centre at landmark WHO meeting, South China Morning Post (28 November 2021)
• US-China tensions over ‘lab leak’ theory hamper hunt for Covid-19 origins, South China Morning Post (3 September 2021)
• China’s Covid origins snub shows limits to World Health Organization’s power, South China Morning Post (22 July 2021)
• Coronavirus: Balancing act for WHO on next phase of investigation into Covid-19 origins, South China Morning Post (26 May 2021)
• ‘Coronavirus: facing criticism and attacks, WHO team readies report on Wuhan probe’, South China Morning Post (17 February 2021)
• ‘WHO Coronavirus Investigation Team to Arrive in China on Thursday’, South China Morning Post (11 January 2021)
• ‘US under Biden set to stay in WHO, but experts say health body needs shake-up’ South China Morning Post (9 November 2020)
• ‘Coronavirus: what China’s decision to join the WHO’s vaccine scheme means’ South China Morning Post (9 October 2020)
• ‘Coronavirus: WHO waits for China to approve pandemic origins investigators’, South China Morning Post (8 October 2020)