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About
Dr Leonelli joined LSE in September 2023. She 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.
Dr Leonelli regularly contributes evidence to inquiries of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee, and the UK Government. In January 2025, she has been 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. As Dr Leonelli argued, this procedure could be applied in such a way as to undermine the UK precautionary approach to food safety and risk regulation.
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. She is a Member of the Trade and Public Policy (TaPP) Network.
Prior to joining LSE, 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
Teaching
Engagement and impact
External Activities
Member, UK Government CBAM Joint Working Group
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