Margherita Cornaglia

Environment

Margherita has a thriving private law practice and is instructed in several claims against corporate entities for harm caused by environmental pollution, for greenwashing and for climate damages. She is also acting for two NGOs in a world-first OECD complaint focusing on the liability of corporate entities for “advertised emissions” and is experienced in advising NGO claimants on the strategic use of soft law complaints mechanisms. She has a keen interest in the intersection between climate law and business and human rights and is well versed in the regulatory developments that are shaping the field of corporate environmental and climate obligations, having, for instance, acted as the first legal coordinator for the UNFCCC Climate Champions. She has experience advising corporate actors on novel regulations, such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation, and of advising philanthropic funders and NGOs on issues including the voluntary carbon market and climate contracting.

Recent cases include:

• Instructed as junior counsel in a private law claim against Associated British Foods for the damage allegedly caused to 1,729 members of Kanseche Village, Malawi, as a result of ABF’s subsidiary’s construction of adaptation measures to protect their agricultural assets, which the Claimants say redirected rivers and destroyed their village.
• Instructed as junior counsel in several confidential transnational environmental law claims, representing claimants seeking redress from large corporate actors headquartered in the UK for the loss and damage caused by environmentally irresponsible action. Margherita is assisting, in particular, with claims founded on attribution science.
• Instructed to advise on a potential greenwashing claim against a large corporate, based on consumer protection law and focused on offsetting.
• Instructed by a philanthropic climate funder to advise on their voluntary carbon markets legal strategy and on regulatory and litigation developments relating to carbon markets.
• Advising clients on a range of matters, including public law claims relating to bioenergy; strategic biodiversity claims; claims relying on the right to a healthy environment and the rights of nature; greenwashing claims; the protest rights of climate activists; and claims pushing for the abatement of short-lived climate pollutants and to put a stop to unlawful flaring of methane gas.
• Consulting for Mishcon Purpose in relation to its litigation programme. Among other things, Margherita is assisting on a range of strategic claims against corporates for climate and environmental harm; and, with Brazilian partners, on strategic claims geared towards holding UK corporate actors to account for illegal deforestation caused in the Amazon and Cerrado and linked to their supply chains.
• Acting as the first Legal Coordinator for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Champions Team, in conjunction with FILE Foundation. Margherita was responsible for the Climate Champions' most recent efforts to strengthen compliance and the integrity of voluntary net zero commitments. She also organised a Climate Action Event within the COP26 Blue Zone, focusing on the opportunities that the law provides for stronger action towards net zero.

Public and Administrative

Margherita’s public law practice focuses on claims raising environmental, climate, human rights and equalities issues. Her recent work includes acting for Friends of the Earth, Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan, in the first claim concerning Part 4 of the Climate Change Act, as well as acting for Clear the Air in Havering in the first judicial review focusing on the interpretation of the Contaminated Land Statutory Guidance when it comes to airborne pollutants. Her past work includes acting as junior counsel in Duarte Agostinho et al. v Portugal and 32 other Contracting States. Margherita’s public law practice has focused significantly on the interplay between climate law and human rights law.

Recent cases include:

• Instructed as junior counsel in the judicial review of the UK Government’s Third National Adaptation Programme (applying Part 4 of the Climate Change Act 2008). The Claimants are currently applying to have their case heard by the European Court of Human Rights, having exhausted domestic remedies.
• Instructed as junior counsel in the judicial review of Havering Council’s decision not to designate an illegal landfill site at Arnold’s Field, Launders Lane, as contaminated land.
• Instructed as junior counsel in the potential judicial review of section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, on human rights grounds (Articles 10 and 11 ECHR), led by Alex Goodman KC.
• Instructed to represent Clinical Vulnerable Families in the COVID-19 public inquiry.
• Instructed by the Global Legal Action Network as junior counsel in Duarte Agostinho et al. v Portugal and 32 other Contracting States before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Margherita’s work in Duarte focused on the applicability of Convention articles to the factual circumstances of the case and has touched upon novel issues such as the relevance of climate anxiety, the understanding of risks to life and wellbeing in light of the best available science, the issue of scientific uncertainty, and the limitations or otherwise of anthropocentrism.

International

International Environmental Law: Margherita has acted in most of the recent landmark proceedings on climate change, before regional tribunals (the European Court of Human Rights, the Interamerican Court of Human Rights) and before the International Court of Justice (for Albania and WWF, in the recent proceedings for an advisory opinion on climate change). She also has experience in European Law and is currently providing legal assistance in a challenge on behalf of several NGOs to the inclusion of certain aviation and shipping activities in the EU Taxonomy.

Recent cases include:

• Instructed to assist counsel for the DRC in its submissions before the ICJ, by Omnia Strategy LLP in respect of Albania’s second round submissions, and by Squire Patton Boggs LLP in respect of WWF’s Statement before the ICJ, in proceedings concerning the Request for Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. The ICJ was asked, by resolution 77/276 of the General Assembly, to provide an advisory opinion answering two questions: (a) What are the obligations of States under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases for States and for present and future generations?; and (b) What are the legal consequences under these obligations for States where they, by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment? Its advisory opinion is available here.
• Represented five Latin American environmental and indigenous rights NGOs (instructed by the Global Methane Hub) before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in respect of Chile and Colombia’s Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency. The amicus curiae focused specifically on short-lived climate pollutants and is available here; the Court’s advisory opinion is available here.
• Instructed to advise the Serbski Sjem on the German Government’s compliance with international law obligations to secure their minority rights and to determine whether the Serbski Sjem meet the definition of indigenous peoples, primarily as a result of their unique connection to their land.

Planning

Margherita practises in planning and public law, with experience in both advisory work and High Court challenges. She is instructed in a forthcoming planning inquiry for a care home development and advises on a range of issues arising in the planning process, including planning obligations, development in the Green Belt, and the interaction between planning and environmental regulation. Her recent work includes advising on planning prospects for alternative employment uses on a strategic site, the scope for varying section 106 obligations in light of changes to a consented residential scheme, and the reasonableness of a local authority delaying the determination of a planning application where sensitive environmental designations are engaged. She has a particular interest in planning matters that engage issues of environmental protection, climate change and the net zero transition. 

Margherita has experience acting in a range of other cross-cutting matters. She is currently instructed by Ofcom as junior counsel in a claim for damages arising from what the Claimants allege are breaches of statutory duty, and by Milberg as junior counsel for the class representative in a class action before the CAT (Alex Neill v Sony). The claim is for abuse of dominance in the tech space. She is particularly interested in further developing her practice in group and representative actions.

EU Law post-Brexit

Public Interest Litigation

Telecommunications

Energy