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Key information
- PhD title: The COP That Was and Wasn't: COP 25's Impact on Chilean Climate Change Law and Governance
- Education: LLM on Environmental Law and Policy, UCL
- Email: monserrat.cuenca.17@ucl.ac.uk
Monserrat Madariaga joined UCL as a PhD Candidate in March 2020. Her research, which is supported by a scholarship from the Government of Chile, focuses on the relationship between Civil Society and Climate Change Law and Government.
Monserrat holds an LLM on Environmental Law and Policy from University College of London and is a qualified lawyer in Chile. Additionally, she has professional experience working as a legal advisor for the Chilean Government and for Civil Society, and she has lectured in different Chilean universities.
She currently works as research assistant for an interdisciplinary project at UCL Institute for Public Policy on Climate Change Loss and Damages, as well as a human rights research with UCL Professor Philippe Sands QC.
Research Supervisors
Areas of Expertise
Environmental Law, Climate Change Law and Administrative Law
UCL Associations/Academic and Professional Memberships
- UKELA (UK Environmental Law Association), Student Member
- Law of the Sea Centre, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Researcher
Professional Experience
Since 2014, Monserrat has worked as a fully qualified lawyer offering advice or representing individuals, companies, civil society and public institutions in Chile on cases concerning administrative law or environmental law. From 2015 to 2017 she worked as a lawyer in the General Comptroller’s Office, Chile. She has lectured at Universidad de Chile, Universidad de Valparaíso, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, and currently at UCL.
Public Engagements & Media Coverage
- Interview for Cosmos Magazine, Australia on Climate Change and the Chilean Constitution Reform process, August 2022.
- Speaker at international panel on the ‘Rights of Nature’ spring symposium, Barry University, USA, April 2022.
- Speaker at Hackathon ‘Unveiling regional challenges on water scarcity, Business and Innovation unit, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile), June, 2021.
- Presentation at the Chilean Senate Committee for the Environment on the discussion of the Climate Change Act, January 2020.
- Speaker at Climate Change cycle of Talks hosted by PUCV, October 2019: “Cop 25”.
- Speaker at Climate Emergency: challenges for Chile and the World Seminar hosted by UTEM, 30th of September 2019: “The legal framework for Climate Change and Climate Change Act project.”
- Opening Lecture at Public Event “What should Chile commit at the Climate Change Global Agreement”, hosted by PUCV and Environmental NGO, FIMA, 22-23 of August, 2019.
- Speaker at Seminar Environmental Disasters and the State Role, 25 of April, 2019: “The need to enhance administrative control of environmental decisions”.
Publications
Blog post: Rights of Nature in the new Chilean constitution: comparative law lessons to make it real, in Red Chilena de Derecho Comparado, April 2022. Spanish version here.
Policy brief: Co-Author, ‘Reflections on the Global Governance of Climate Change Loss and Damage at COP26’, Climate Change Loss and Damages Project- Institute for Public Policy, UCL, November 2021.
Blog post ‘Cops: Location, location, location’, in UCL Centre for Law and Environment blog Climate Change and the Rule of Law, October 2021.
Journal article: Is Chile building good climate governance? Reflections on the drafting process of the climate change framework law. Environmental Law Review, 23(1), 2021, pp. 40-48.
Book chapter: Co-author, Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples, in Salinas (ed.) Analysis of Chile’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and proposals from the Civil Society for Climate Action, Sociedad Civil por la Acción Climática, 2020.
Blog post: ‘The COP that was and wasn’t: Reflections on hosting COP 25 from a TWAIL perspective’ in Cambridge International Law Journal, Edward Elgar Publishing, December 2020.
Policy Brief: Participación Ciudadana en Proyecto de Ley Marco de Cambio Climático (Citizen Participation at the Climate Change Law), Nº 20, CR2 Universidad de Chile (Chile), June 2020.