Dr Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli is a Reader in Environmental Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. Since 2024, she has been the Thematic Research Lead for International Affairs and National Security in the UK Parliament, where she supports the use of research evidence in parliamentary debate and scrutiny.

Dr Duvic-Paoli is a public international law scholar, with research interests in environmental, climate and biodiversity law. Her scholarship addresses international environmental obligations, the changing architecture of international governance (including the role of the G20), and participation and citizens’ assemblies in climate governance.

She is the author of The Prevention Principle in International Environmental Law (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and co-editor (with Veerle Heyvaert) of the Research Handbook on Transnational Environmental Law (Edward Elgar, 2020). She is currently preparing a legal commentary on the Convention on Biological Diversity (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2027) and developing a new monograph, Reimagining Climate Legislation: Citizens’ Assemblies and the Making of Environmental Law (Cambridge University Press).

Dr Duvic-Paoli works at the interface of research, policy and practice. She regularly advises governments, international organisations and NGOs, and has contributed to international environmental negotiations, national citizens’ assemblies and other major climate and environmental initiatives. She maintains an active legal practice; her work with the African Union in the advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice concerning climate change was recognised with a King’s Engaged Research Award in 2025.

She is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Transnational Environmental Law, an Editorial Fellow of the Paris Institute for Advanced Study and a Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG). In 2020/2021, she was the Sorbonne University Chair on Major Societal Changes at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study. She is the Project Leader of the Platform on International Energy Governance, a network of excellence advancing research on emerging questions in energy law.

Dr Duvic-Paoli is committed to educating the next generation of sustainability leaders. She has been short-listed twice by the Dickson Poon School of Law for a Teaching Excellence Award for innovation in education and received a King’s Supervisory Excellence Award for PhD supervision in 2024. She regularly delivers executive education for sustainability professionals and capacity-building workshops for Global South officials.

Dr Duvic-Paoli has held multiple visiting teaching and research positions world-wide, including at the Geneva Graduate Institute, the University of Geneva, ESADE Law School, the University of New South Wales, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Rennes, Université Bordeaux-Montaigne, FGV São Paulo and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. Before joining King’s College London in 2017, she was Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Duvic-Paoli holds master’s degrees in international relations from Sciences Po Paris and in public law from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She holds a PhD in international law (summa cum laude) from the Geneva Graduate Institute.

Tedx talk 

Watch Leslie-Anne’s TEDx talk on: 'Will citizens' assemblies save the planet?' (View on Youtube).

Research interests

• International and transnational environmental law
• Environmental principles and state obligations
• Human rights, public participation and environmental degradation
• Transformation of the international legal order
• Research-policy interface, research impact and knowledge exchange

Teaching interests 

• Environmental Law (LLB)
• Global Law of Climate Change (LLM)
• ESG Regulation and Compliance (MSc, King’s Business School)
• Public International Law (LLB)
• Engaging with Parliament as a Researcher (LISS Doctoral Training Programme)

PhD student supervision

Dr Duvic-Paoli supervises PhD students in the field of international and transnational environmental law. Research proposals that address not only the climate crisis but also biodiversity loss, oceans protection, resource management or pollution are welcome. Supervision on subjects of general public international law with a cosmopolitan focus is also possible.

PURE profile 

For more information on Dr Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli's research and her publications, visit her research portal.