Chiara Armeni is a Professor of Environmental Law at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Faculty of Law and Criminology). She is Director of the Centre for European Law and Vice-Dean responsible for research.

Before joining ULB, she was a lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Sussex, School of Law, Politics and Sociology (2016-2020) and a research associate at University College London, Faculty of Laws (2009-2016). At UCL, she co-directed the Centre for Law and the Environment (2015-2016) and was the deputy director of the Carbon Capture Legal Programme. Prior to UCL, Chiara worked with the International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC) in Geneva as a research associate (2008).

Chiara holds a PhD in Law from University College London. She also holds a Specialised LLM in Environmental Law and Policy (University College London, 2009) and a Master 2 in Public International Law (Università Roma Tre, 2005).

 

Research Interests

Chiara’s research focuses on public participation in environmental decision-making processes. Her early work explored opportunities for individuals and groups to engage in decisions regarding climate change mitigation infrastructure (such as carbon capture and storage, renewable energy, and geoengineering) and the role of law in facilitating this participation on the ground. Her doctoral thesis examined public participation in decision-making and benefit-sharing related to large offshore wind energy projects in England.

Between 2020 and 2024, Chiara developed two interconnected research strands. The first strand examines opportunities for public participation in the climate crisis, ranging from participation in planning decisions to protest, and explores how law can facilitate or restrict this participation. The second strand focuses on the concept of a “just” climate transition and the role of participatory rights within this framework. This work centres on the EU’s just transition framework and its implications for legally protected rights to participate in climate transition decisions. This research has also sparked new interest in the role of climate inequalities in the EU’s just transition.

These two interconnected research strands on participation and just transition converge around the concepts of procedural justice and socio-ecological inequalities, forming the core of her current research on climate inequalities and rights within the EU.

 

Teaching Activities

At ULB, Chiara holds an inter-faculty chair in Environmental Law, shared by the Faculty of Law and Criminology, the Faculty of Sciences, and the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. In this role, she teaches:

– Environmental Law for the Master’s in Law (substitute for 2024-25) (FR)

– Environmental Law for the Master’s in Environmental Science and Management (FR)

– EU Law and Policy on Climate Change, for Specialized Master in European Law and Specialised Master in International Law (EN)

– Law and Economics of the Environment for Master in Economics; Master in European and Specialized Master in EU Interdisciplinary Studies (EN)

Between 2021 and 2024 she was co-convenor of the experimental interfaculty course on Introduction to the Challenges of Sustainability (FR).

 

Selected Publications:

• Peer-reviewed Articles:

Lee M and Armeni C (2024) ‘Participation and protest across civic space: an environmental law story’. (under review German Law Journal).

Armeni C., (2023) What justice? The scope for public participation in the European Union Just Transition’, Common Market Law Review Volume 60, Issue 4 pp. 1027 – 1054

Armeni C and Lee M (2021) ‘Participation in a Time of Climate Crisis’ Journal of Law and Society 1-24.

Armeni C (2021) ‘Narratives as Tools of Legal Re-Imagination in the Climate Crisis’ 33 Journal of Environmental Law 485–494. 5

Armeni C., and Anker Tegner H., ‘Public participation and appeal rights in decision-making on wind energy infrastructure: a comparative analysis of the Danish and English legal framework’ (2019) 63 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 842-861

Armeni C., ‘Public Participation and Major Wind Farms: Reflecting on Mitigation, Community Benefits and Planning’ (2016) 28 Journal of Environmental Law Volume 415–441

Armeni C., ‘Global Experimentalist Governance, International Law and Climate Change Technologies’ (2015) 64 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 875-904

Lee M., Armeni C., de Cendra J., Chaytor S., Lock S., Maslin M., Redgwell C. and Rydin Y, ‘Public Participation and climate change infrastructure’ (2013) 25 Journal of Environmental Law 33-62

Armeni, C., ‘The Copenhagen Accord and Beyond’ (2010) 12 Environmental Law Review 132-139

 

• Book chapters:

Armeni C. ‘Inequalities and environmental justice in the EU climate transition’ in A. Crespy and C. Brière (eds) Inequality and the European Union. New frontiers in political science and law (Routledge, forthcoming 2025)

Armeni C, ‘Who decides, and how, when things fall apart? Climate emergency, public participation and the role of EU law’ in Sanja Bogojevic and Xavier Groussot, ‘Constitutional Dimensions of Emergency Law’ (Bloomsbury/Hart, forthcoming 2025)

Armeni, C., ‘Activisme des ONG dans l’intérêt public et droit à un procès équitable’ in D Misonne and M.-S. de Clippele (eds), Les grands arrêts inspirants du droit de l’environnement (Larcier, 2024).

Armeni, C. ‘Piccadilly Circus Water Lilies: A Judgment on Participation and Place Experience in Future Planning Decisions’ in Nicole Rogers and Michelle Maloney (eds.) The Anthropocene Judgment Project – Future Proofing the Common Law (Routledge 2024), 149.

Armeni, C. ‘Place, Participation and Planning Law in a time of climate change’ in Maria Lee et Carolyn Abbot eds Taking Planning Law Scholarship Seriously (UCL Press 2022).

Armeni, C., ‘An introduction to key developments and concepts in CCS: history, technology, economics and law’ (with B Evar and V Scott) in N Markusson, S Shackley, B Evar (eds), The Social Dynamics of Carbon Capture and Storage – Understanding CCS Representations, Governance and Innovation (2012) Routledge

Armeni, C., ‘Legal Developments for Carbon Capture and Storage under International and Regional Marine Legislation’ in I Havercroft, R Macrory, R B Stewart (eds), Carbon Capture and Storage – Emerging Legal and Regulatory Issues (2011) Hart Publishing.

Email: Chiara.armeni@ulb.be