Climate Change Litigation

Climate Change Litigation - Liability and Damages from a Comparative Perspective investigates and discusses the respective issues arising in the current discourse on climate protection from different legal perspectives (including International law, European law and national public and civil law). In particular, it addresses the issue of "climate protection by courts".

It gives an overview about important jurisdictions in the field of Climate Change Litigation, including inter alia the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Brazil and Germany.

The evergreater, more wide-spread, and more violent effects of climate change in recent history have brought forth an unprecedented rise in societal discourse in the field of climate change. Naturally, this discourse is portrayed with its concomitant effects in court: The lawsuits initiated by human rights organisations against large corporations (e.g. against the energy giant RWE before German Courts) and states (e.g. against the Netherlands) have attracted significant media attention especially.

As a result, climate change litigation is in the course of establishing itself into an independent branch of environmental law and international law which is most likely to be one of the major legal markets of the future.

Building upon this, Climate Change Litigation - Liability and Damages from a Comparative Perspective aims to pave the way for research in the field of climate change litigation, which up to this point has surprisingly remained untrodden ground in Germany or Europe.

Published as a handbook, this text provides answers and ideas both to scholars and practitioners in this legal field. Furthermore, it is guaranteed to provide an overview of the latest news in cases and progress in the field of climate change litigation.

Outline of the Handbook

• Fundamental questions of climate change litigation
• Procedural Issues and Conflict of Laws
• State Liability under International and European Law
• Duties of protection following from Human Rights
• Climate Change Litigation - National Reports
• Liability for Climate Damages - Germany as an International Pioneer?