Dr Alessandra Accogli
Based in the DCU School of Law and Government, I have been leading modules in climate change politics, international human rights law, legal research methods and legal drafting. I am also an Occasional Lecturer in University College Dublin, Sutherland School of Law, where I teach European human rights law.
In addition to my teaching duties, I also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher as part of the Horizon Europe RETOOL project on strengthening democratic governance for climate transitions, where I focused on the impact of citizens assemblies on Ireland's climate policy and democracy.
Prior to joining DCU, I was awarded my Ph.D. without corrections from UCD Sutherland School of Law in March 2025. My Ph.D. which was funded by the Ad Astra PhD Scholarship, examined the tensions between the protection of ecosystems that act as carbon sinks and the human rights at stake. The analysis adopted a case-study approach focused on peatlands in Ireland.
My research sits at the intersections of climate change law and policy, environmental law and human rights law and touches on issues related to land use in the context of the climate transition, carbon sink protection, climate litigation, planning law, public participation and human rights. I have been published in outlets such as Climate Law, the European Human Rights Law Review, the Review of European Comparative and International Environmental Law (RECIEL), and the Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal.
I also hold an LL.M. in Public International Law and a Master's in Political Science from Universite Libre de Bruxelles, as well as a Law Degree from Universita del Salento.
Research Interests
My research interests lie at the intersections of climate change law, environmental law, and human rights law. Through my work, I aim to advance the discourse on how legal mechanisms for climate and environmental protection can be designed in ways that align with human rights, particularly in the context of the rapid societal and policy transitions required to meet climate targets. My research adopts a socio-legal perspective, integrating legal, environmental, and social dimensions, often in collaboration with researchers in political science, environmental science, and sociology.
Specifically, my research has focused on how carbon sinks, i.e., ecosystems that absorb and store CO₂ thereby mitigating climate change, are protected under the law, with peatlands in Ireland serving as a relevant case study. As part of this specific topic, I have engaged with related research themes including: ecosystem protection and restoration; land-use regulation and national planning law; the interplay between land, property, and environmental regulation; the socio-cultural dimension of landscapes; the analysis of human rights, such as the right to culture, the right to work and the right to privacy as embedding environmental and climate considerations.
Related research interests have encompassed work on the twin challenges of responding to climate change while reinvigorating democratic governance, as part of my postdoctoral research on the Horizon Europe RETOOL Project ‘Strengthening Democratic Governance for Climate Transitions’ at Dublin City University (DCU), School of Law and Government. In this context, I conducted interdisciplinary research on deliberative democracy, examining the impact of climate citizens’ assemblies on democratic processes.