Core Team

Daniel Girsberger Project Leader
Daniel is the grant holder of the SNF Project. He oversees the strategic and operational decisions and is responsible for data quality control for the Dataverse. Daniel steers the Scientific Board, composed of legal experts from all continents.

Agatha Brandão de Oliveira Project Coordinator
Agatha is responsible for the strategic vision and practical execution of the project. She manages a multidisciplinary staff and is in charge of fostering partnerships. Agatha also acts as a Senior Researcher for the Dataverse, with a focus on data input.

Simon Weigold Data Engineer
Simon translates the project requirements into a data infrastructure. He implements data management procedures and facilitates systems used to input, store, review, and process data.

Fabian Aiolfi Product Developer
Fabian is behind the conceptual development of the Dataverse. He coordinates user needs, academic input and technical feasibility to ensure that CoLD is user-friendly and useful.

Dominic McMahon Legal NLP Specialist & Data Analytics Lead
Dominic has recently completed his Master's degree in Law at the University of Lucerne. He acts as a Researcher for the Dataverse, with a focus on data analysis and data input. Dominic is also responsible for administrative tasks and for the coordination of events.

Olga Shpakova Data Scientist
Under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Girsberger and Agatha Brandão, Olga researches the application of large language models in the legal field. She joined the team in March 2024 and worked as a research assistant for a year.

Rorick Daniel Tovar Galván Senior Researcher
Rorick holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bern, Switzerland. He oversees data input from Latin American countries into the Dataverse.

Partners

Prof. Geneviève Saumier, Université de Montréal
Prof. Jan L Neels, University of Johannesburg
Prof. Eesa A Fredericks, University of Johannesburg

The partners oversee specialized task forces for case law review, refinement of data, and indexing of new information linked to CoLD.

External Researchers

Prince Obiri-Korang, Assistant to Prof. Jan Neels (African Task Force)
Solomon Okorley, Assistant to Prof. Eesa Fredericks (African Task Force)
Ying Wang (North American Task Force)
Isha Suraj Puthenpurakal (Asian Task Force)

International Network

The Dataverse fosters collaboration by promoting exchange among researchers across legal systems and national borders. The previous research project, “The Hague Principles and Beyond,” mobilized scholars from more than 60 universities and other institutions around the globe.

Scientific Committee

Project Partners
Prof. Geneviève Saumier
Prof. Jan L Neels
Prof. Eesa A Fredericks

Prof. Béligh Elbalti, Osaka University
Prof. Lauro Gama, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Prof. Thomas Kadner Graziano, University of Geneva
Prof. Brooke Marshall, University of Oxford
Prof. José Moreno Rodríguez, National University of Asuncion
Prof. Yuko Nishitani, Kyoto University
Prof. Marta Pertegás, Maastricht University

Former Assistants and Volunteers

Linda Dosch
Rebecca Zimmerman
Anna Fonseca