Jordi Sandalinas
Lawyer, Speaker, Lecturer, Vegan
Jordi Sandalinas, Lawyer, LL.M (University of Barcelona, Spain) has been practicing law since 1997 and also teaches drone and satellite law at the Open University of Catalonia and at the University of Distance Learning of Madrid (UDIMA). Jordi joined the Adena/World Wildlife Fund and has collaborated with different local NGOs promoting animal rights such as Depana (Marine matters), LIbera, Ecologistes de l'Empordà and PACMA (Partido Animalista Contra el Maltrato Animal) in Barcelona. Jordi is a Member of the RADA Association of Environmental Lawyers in Spain, the Iberoamerican Institute of Air and Space Law, the Environmental Law Commission of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and is a Member of the AquaWatch Working Group of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO). Jordi has also served as an observer for the International Institute of Space Law during the United Nations Legal Subcommittee meetings in Vienna on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Jordi was granted an scholarship under the EU-LERU exchange Program in October 2019 to research for his PhD studies at the University of Geneva and has collaborated with the University of Brest preparing a legal report for Project called Tech4Whales to apply software standards to ships and vessels to avoid ship strikes against whales and other marine mammals. Jordi prepared also the Report discussed at the Open Geospatial Consortium Meetings in Brussels, June 24, 2019: "Towards a definition of maritime spatial data infrastructure" focusing on environmental law.
Jordi's field of expertise is Space and Drone Law, Remote Sensing and the application of Space regulations to the marine ecosystems, such as the Copernicus Program, Marine Strategy Framework and the Maritime Spatial Planning Directives. Both instruments oblige EU Member States to reach a Good Environmental Status by 2020, and to allocate their maritime spatial infrastructures by 2021.
Jordi advocates for an open access system of systems of remote sensing satellite data and imagery broad enough to defend nature and animal rights and believes that environmental law, animal law and all air and space technologies should be interlinked in order to respect nature and animal rights. Jordi is also advocating for the update of the existing framework and supports the creation of an International Environmental Court capable to judge Animal Rights violations.
Jordi has published articles (also peer reviewed) in the field of Space Law and Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Law and Policy (German Journal of Air and Space Law. ZLW Vol 3. 2019) and has presented many papers warning about the effects of climate change and supporting the idea of the use of satellite imagery and space data to protect our environment. Jordi believes in the ethical use of technology and the protection of marine life as a consequence of Maritime Spatial Planning.
Finally, Jordi has been invited by the UNESCO delegation office in Barcelona (Amis de l'UNESCO) to present his work around environmental law the International Environmental Court and his approach around the idea of ECOCIDE and the use of space technologies among other interesting topics.