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About
Dr Leonelli researches and teaches in the fields of climate change law, environmental law, trade law, and risk regulation. Her research has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of International Economic Law, the World Trade Review, the Journal of World Trade, Legal Studies, the Journal of Environmental Law, Transnational Environmental Law, the Common Market Law Review, the Yearbook of European Law, and the European Law Review.
In January 2025, she was appointed by His Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) Joint Working Group. The Group collaborates with HMRC on the development of the UK CBAM policy. In October 2023, she was invited to give oral evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee regarding the UK accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and its implications for UK levels of food safety and environmental protection. In February 2024, the House of Lords International Agreements Committee drew on her evidence to call on the Government to clarify its approach to the implementation of the CPTPP equivalence procedure. Her evidence has been cited by the Commons and the Lords Committees on several other occasions, including in an official letter to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. Her research on carbon border measures and climate clubs has fed into policy discussions regarding the G7 blueprint for climate club arrangements.
Prior to joining LSE in September 2023, she was Lecturer in Law at Birkbeck, University of London, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London. She holds a PhD in Law and an LLM (with Distinction) from King’s College London. Her PhD thesis won the Elsevier Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Work in 2018.
Research
Research Interests
Dr Leonelli’s latest research projects include a cross-disciplinary exploration of the political backlash against the net-zero transition, and positive and normative analyses of climate litigation.
Over the last years, her research has focused on new forms of environmental unilateralism and plurilateralism. Her second monograph ('Environmental Leverage in Times of Climate Crisis') engages in an innovative analysis of trade-related measures that are designed to promote the uptake of more ambitious environmental standards by third countries and market actors involved in transnational supply chains. It provides a conceptually informed insight into anti-deforestation standards, carbon border measures, climate clubs, and Environmental Chapters in Preferential Trade Agreements.
In the past, she has published extensively on US and EU risk regulation, governance of biotechnologies, chemicals and pesticides, and access to justice in environmental and public health matters.
Publications
Environmental Leverage in Times of Climate Crisis. Product Standards, Carbon Border Measures and Preferential Trade Agreements (Hart Publishing, 2026)
This book offers a conceptually informed insight into the rise of 'environmental leverage' in times of climate crisis.
The world is fast approaching a two degree Celsius increase in average global temperatures. Against this troubling background, trade-related environmental leverage aims to promote the uptake of more ambitious environmental standards by third countries and market actors involved in transnational supply chains.
Trade-related environmental leverage can help to remedy the failures of environmental multilateralism, reshape the trade agenda to cater to the demands of our time, and entrench greener forms of development and more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Nonetheless, its boundaries must be appropriately circumscribed.
The book assesses different forms of environmental leverage against the normative yardsticks of 'environmental integrity' and 'environmental legitimacy'. Environmental integrity targets 'green protectionism' and 'green discrimination', drawing a line between the promotion of environmental values and the protection of economic interests. Environmental legitimacy captures 'eco-imperialism', addressing the question of the treatment of differently situated countries and developing and least developed countries in particular. The book employs an in-depth analysis of three case studies to operationalise this conceptual framework, articulating the limits to environmental leverage in legal terms.
Combining a close focus on environmental regulations with a rigorous assessment of trade law questions, the book is relevant to anybody working in the fields of environmental law and policy, climate change law, and international trade law.
click here for publisher's site
Transnational narratives and regulation of GMO risks (Hart Publishing, 2021)
This book provides an innovative insight into the regulatory conundrum of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), deploying transnational legal analysis as a methodological framework to explore the most controversial area of risk governance. The book deconstructs hegemonic and counter-hegemonic transnational narratives on the governance of GMO risks, cutting across US law, EU law, the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and hybrid standard-setting regimes. Should uncertain risks be run unless adverse effects have been conclusively established, and should regulators only act where this is cost-benefit effective? Should risk managers make a convincing case that a product or process is safe enough for the relevant uncertain risks to be socially acceptable? How can intractable transnational regulatory conflicts be solved?
- 'The Post-Modern normative anxiety of Transnational Legal Studies' in Zumbansen, P. (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law (Oxford University Press, 2021)
- 'The perfect storm: GMO governance and The EU technocratic turn' in Eliantonio, M. and Peeters, M. (eds.) Research Handbook on EU Environmental Law (Edward Elgar, 2020)
- 'GMO risks, food security, climate change and the entrenchment of Neo-Liberal legal narratives' in Webster, E. and Gupta, A. and Ambros, R. (eds.) Transnational Food Security (Routledge, 2020)
- 'Trade-Related Environmental Leverage and its Limits: Is the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Incompatible with Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities?' Leiden Journal of International Law (forthcoming 2026)
- 'Critical raw materials, the net-zero transition and the 'securitisation' of the trade and climate change nexus: Pinpointing environmental risks and charting a new path for transnational decarbonisation' (2025) World Trade Review; working paper available here
- 'Retooling the Regulation of Net-Zero Subsidies: Lessons from the US Inflation Reduction Act' (2024) Journal of International Economic Law 27 (3) 441–461 (with Francesco Clora)
- 'A fresh look at the Aim-and-Effects debate: EU – Palm Oil and the centrality of the Chapeau of Article XX GATT' (2023) Trade, Law and Development
- 'Environmental unilateralism and the Chapeau of Article XX GATT: the ‘Line of Equilibrium’ and the question of ‘Differently Situated’ countries' (2023) Journal of World Trade 57 (5) 709–730
- 'Anti-deforestation npr-PPMs and carbon border measures: thinking about the chapeau of article XX GATT in times of climate crisis' (2023) Journal of International Economic Law
- 'The long and winding road towards the creation of climate clubs: transatlantic negotiations, potential regulatory models and challenges ahead' (2023) Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law
- 'The Glyphosate saga continues: ‘Dissenting’ member states and the European way forward' (2023) Transnational Environmental Law 12 (1) 200-224
- 'Export rebates and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: WTO law and environmental objections' (2022) Journal of World Trade 46 (6) 963-984
- 'Transatlantic divergencies in the regulation of uncertain risks: co-production, normative frames and ideal evidence-based and socially acceptable risk approaches' (2022) German Law Journal 23 (5) 769-799
- 'Carbon border measures, environmental effectiveness and WTO law compatibility: is there a way forward for the steel and aluminium climate club?' (2022) World Trade Review 21 (5) 619-632
- 'Practical obstacles and structural legal constraints in the adoption of ‘defensive’ policies: comparing the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the US Proposal for a Border Carbon Adjustment' (2022) Legal Studies 42 (4) 696-714
- 'Access to the EU courts in environmental and public health cases and the reform of the Aarhus Regulation: systemic vision, pragmatism, and a happy ending' (2021) Yearbook of European Law 40, 230-264
- 'Balancing public health and environmental protection and economic stakes? Bayer CropScience and the court’s defence of the EU Socially Acceptable Risk Approach' (2021) Common Market Law Review 58 (6),1845-1874
- 'From extra-territorial leverage and transnational environmental protection to distortions of competition: the level playing field in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement' (2021) Journal of Environmental Law 33 (3) 611-637
- 'Judicial review of compliance with the precautionary principle from Paraquat to Blaise: “Quantitative Thresholds,” risk assessment, and the gap between regulation and regulatory implementation' (2021) German Law Journal 22 (2) 184-215
- 'Acknowledging the centrality of the precautionary principle in judicial review of EU risk regulation: why it matters' (2020) Common Market Law Review 57 (6) 1773-1818
- 'CETA and the external autonomy of The EU legal order: risk regulation as a test' (2020) Legal Issues of Economic Integration 47 (1) 43-70
- 'A threefold blow to environmental public interest litigation' (2020) European Law Review 45 (3) 324-347
- 'GMO authorisations and The Aarhus Regulation: paving the way for precautionary GMO governance?' (2019) Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 26 (4) 505-523
- 'The glyphosate saga and the fading democratic legitimacy of European Union risk regulation' (2018) Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 25 (5) 582-606
- 'The fine line between procedural and substantive review in cases involving complex technical-scientific evaluations: Bilbaína'(2018)Common Market Law Review 55 (4) 1217-1250
- 'GMO risks, food security, climate change and the entrenchment of Neo-Liberal legal narratives'Transnational Legal Theory 9 (3-4) 302-315
Elsevier Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Work, year 2018
Teaching
Engagement and impact
External Activities
- Member, UK Government CBAM Joint Working Group
- Member, LSE Global School of Sustainability (GSoS), Theme 3 (Mobilising Political, Legal and Governance Systems)
- Associate Fellow, LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
- Member, Trade and Public Policy (TaPP) Network (Environment, Food and Agriculture, Health and Impact Assessment policy areas)
- Member, Society of Legal Scholars
- Fellow, Advance HE
Public Engagement
(2025) Submission of evidence to the Department for Energy Security & Net-Zero, Consultation: UK Emissions Trading Scheme: Free Allocation Review, Carbon Leakage (2025) Department for Energy Security & Net-Zero; HM Treasury, not publicly available
(2024) Submission to the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, Net Zero and Trade Inquiry. House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee
(2024) Consultation: introduction of a UK carbon border adjustment mechanism from January 2027 (Department for Energy Security & Net-Zero; HM Treasury). Department for Energy Security & Net-Zero; HM Treasury
(2024) Submission to the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee, Industrial Policy Inquiry. House of Commons Business and Trade Committee
(2023) Submission of Supplementary Evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, CPTPP Accession Inquiry. House of Lords International Agreements Committee
(2023) Oral evidence session, House of Lords International Agreements Committee, CPTPP Accession Inquiry. You can watch the video of the oral evidence session here.
(2023) Submission to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, CPTPP Accession Inquiry. House of Lords International Agreements Committee
(2023) Consultation: addressing carbon leakage risk to support decarbonisation (Department for Energy Security & Net-Zero; HM Treasury). Department for Energy Security & Net-Zero; HM Treasury
(2023) Submission to the House of Commons International Trade Committee, CPTPP Accession Inquiry. House of Commons International Trade Committee
(2022) After Elmau: input to the policy debate on climate clubs. Social Science Research Network
(2022) Border tax adjustments and the WTO Law compatibility of ETS/CBAM export rebates: Aut Simul Stabunt, Aut Simul Cadent. SSRN: Elsevier.
(2022) Guest post: full carbon pricing, average carbon intensity and the Global Steel and Aluminium Arrangement: in conversation with Bixuan Wu and Aaron Cosbey. International Economic Law and Policy Blog
(2022) Submission to the House of Commons International Trade Committee, Trade and the Environment Inquiry. London, UK: House of Commons International Trade Committee
(2022) Submission to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, UK – Australia Trade Negotiations. London, UK: House of Lords International Agreements Committee