Gracia is a Lecturer in International Economic Law and directs the new LLM Programme in International Economic Law. Her research interests lie generally in WTO law (with a specific focus on development issues, trade&environment nexus and regionalism) as well as in the law of the EU external trade and sustainable development policies. She is currently co-authoring (with Dr. Elisa Morgera) a monograph on environmental integration in the EU’s external relations (to be published by Hart Publishing in 2011) and participating in a AHRC-funded research project on ‘fair trade’.

Prior to joining the School in February 2011, Gracia served as a trade officer at the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of South Africa (RSA), where she dealt with EU-RSA cooperation in a wide range of areas (such as: trade in goods, services, investment, intellectual property, procurement, competition) as well as with EU-SADC negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement. She previously worked at the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organisation, where she was involved in a number of dispute settlement proceedings, and consulted for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in the preparation of a legislative study on organic agriculture.

Gracia holds a PhD in law from the European University Instititute (Florence, Italy), a MA in International Relations (International Law and Development Economics) from the Johns Hopkins University-SAIS (Washington D.C., USA), and a BA in European Studies from the University College London (London, UK).

She welcomes enquiries from potential students interested in any of these research areas and/or in undertaking the new LLM Programme in International Economic Law.