TY - JOUR
T1 - Climate change litigation
AU - Peel, Jacqueline
AU - Osofsky, Hari M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 Jacqueline Peel & Hari M. Osofsky.
PY - 2020/10/13
Y1 - 2020/10/13
N2 - Climate change litigation has grown exponentially in the last decade, paralleled by the emergence of a rich legal and social sciences literature assessing these cases. Building on a recent review in WIRES Climate Change, this article evaluates the growth of this literature and the key themes it highlights. In 2019, climate litigation literature experienced substantial growth, with a focus on multiple novel dimensions: new high-profile judgments; emerging legal avenues, types of actors, litigation objectives, and jurisdictions, especially those in the Global South; and additional interdisciplinary analyses. Just as in the underlying case law, climate litigation scholarship shows evidence of distinct but overlapping waves that build together in a manner similar to a harmonic chord. Even so, this literature has not yet engaged deeply with questions about the effectiveness of climate litigation as a governance tool, particularly in the context of the decentralized system formalized with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
AB - Climate change litigation has grown exponentially in the last decade, paralleled by the emergence of a rich legal and social sciences literature assessing these cases. Building on a recent review in WIRES Climate Change, this article evaluates the growth of this literature and the key themes it highlights. In 2019, climate litigation literature experienced substantial growth, with a focus on multiple novel dimensions: new high-profile judgments; emerging legal avenues, types of actors, litigation objectives, and jurisdictions, especially those in the Global South; and additional interdisciplinary analyses. Just as in the underlying case law, climate litigation scholarship shows evidence of distinct but overlapping waves that build together in a manner similar to a harmonic chord. Even so, this literature has not yet engaged deeply with questions about the effectiveness of climate litigation as a governance tool, particularly in the context of the decentralized system formalized with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
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U2 - 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-022420-122936
DO - 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-022420-122936
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85093095880
SN - 1550-3585
VL - 16
SP - 21
EP - 38
JO - Annual Review of Law and Social Science
JF - Annual Review of Law and Social Science
ER -