Gabriel Lopez Porras

Position: Visiting Cheney Fellow
Areas of expertise: Water governance; Harmony with Nature; Rights of Nature; Water values; Environmental law; Water law
Email: G.LopezPorras@leeds.ac.uk
Website: | LinkedIn | Googlescholar

Profile

Dr. Gabriel López Porras is an Environmental Law lecturer and researcher at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico.

He is an Independent Expert with the United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme and holds a Cheney Fellowship at the University of Leeds.

In his roles as an environmental law practitioner and academic, he focuses on transforming legal frameworks to incorporate plural values of water, with the aim of promoting a more sustainable and harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world.

Research interests

My work examines how legal frameworks shape human–nature relationships, particularly through the values embedded in environmental and water laws.

I am especially interested in how these frameworks can evolve to reflect a more pluralistic and ecologically grounded understanding of nature.

I would like to highlight my current research as a Cheney Fellow at the University of Leeds, where I am analysing water legal frameworks in Mexico and the UK using the IPBES Life Framework to identify axiological inconsistencies and explore how law can support a more harmonious coexistence with nature through water.