Climate Change Litigation

Peel, Jacqueline; Osofsky, Hari M.

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139565851

Cited by 128 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…67 In the UK, the existence of wind farms particularly dominated the early cases of the climate change. 68 There are several high profile cases in the UK as well, which have created a meaningful base to protect the environment and people from the climate change. 69 For instance, in the case of Kingsnorth Six 70 in 2008, the UK court set free the six climate change protesters causing damage in a coal power plant.…”

Section: Protection Of Environment and People By Climate Change Litigmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protecting the Environment and People from Climate Change through Climate Change Litigation

Okonkwo¹

2017

JPL

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Climate change litigation seeks to apply legal rights in order to affect the outcomes that would either mitigate, reduce or can even result in improved alternation to climate change. This article intends to identify and analyse the ways through which the environment and the people are protected from rapid changes in climate through the means of climate change litigation. Protection of the environment as well as people by climate change litigation can be witnessed in various nations throughout the globe particularly Australia, the US, Canada and the UK. The research problem examined in this article shows that the courts are becoming a critical climate change front where climate change conflicts are resolved. The research objectives are to help understand how climate change has impacted human health and the environment and how the courts have stepped into the arena to restrain activities that cause climate change impact. The methodology adopted in this article is both doctrinal and theoretical drawing upon primary and secondary sources of information. The key findings and implications to theory and practice of this article is that it is a medium to foster the jurisprudence of the role of climate change regime through judicial intervention in protecting the environment and people from climate change through climate change litigation.

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Section: Protection Of Environment and People By Climate Change Litigmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protecting the Environment and People from Climate Change through Climate Change Litigation

Okonkwo¹

2017

JPL

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“…The reciprocity of law and place is increasingly relevant in the age of the Anthropocene, in understanding how planetary boundaries can reshape social discourse, and in the process ‘require[ing] searching self‐examination about the habits of social thought and action’ (Castree, , 464). A detailed analysis of climate change adaptation literature is beyond the scope of this paper, but the aforementioned highlights are useful in the analysis of the Vaughan litigation to follow, noting both the significant impact that climate change will have on places, and on law (Peel and Osofsky, ).…”

Section: Challenges For the Australian Coastline: A Growing Populatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, it sheds light on the shaping of “the contours of the legal space” (Harm‐Benson, , 232). There is a growing body of law in Australia that can be categorised as climate change adaptation litigation (Peel and Godden, ; McDonald, ; ; Peel and Osofsky, ). That Australian litigation “is shaping actions” in responses to climate change on the Australian coast (Peel and Godden, , 38; Bartel et al, ), is well demonstrated in the case of Walker v The Minister for Planning () 157 LGERA 124.…”

Section: Litigation and Legal Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst this decision was overturned by the New South Wales Court of Appeal on the basis of the breadth of applicability of the public interest test as a legislative requirement for consideration by the decision‐maker (in this case, the Planning Minister), the importance of climate change flood risk to developments in high‐risk places was found to be a “required consideration” by the relevant decision‐maker ( Minister for Planning v Walker () 161 LGERA 423; [Minister for Planning v Walker, ] NSWCA 224, per Hodgson JA, par 60). The significance of the decision in terms of a developing body of law on coastal climate change adaptation has been well discussed (see, for example, Peel and Godden, ; McDonald, ; 2014; Preston, ; O'Donnell and Gates, ; Peel and Osofsky, ) and demonstrates the increasing significance of climate change adaptation as a key context for legal geography scholarship, and the reciprocities between law and place that courts in some jurisdictions can illustrate. This influence is further demonstrated in Kennedy v NSW Minister for Planning () 176 LGERA 395 (Preston, ).…”

Section: Litigation and Legal Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This influence is further demonstrated in Kennedy v NSW Minister for Planning () 176 LGERA 395 (Preston, ). The importance of the role of the judiciary in developing climate change law (Lin, 2012), and the critical influence of climate change on places highlights the important role of first instance litigation in jurisdictions such as the Land and Environment Court (McDonald, 2011; 2014; Peel and Osofsky, ). The recognition of the synonymous relationship between the social and the environmental world (at least as is evidenced in a body of judicial reasoning of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales (see also Bartel et al, , 72)) opens the rich field from which the construction of law vis-a-vis place can be considered.…”

Section: Litigation and Legal Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legal geography and coastal climate change adaptation: the Vaughan litigation

O’Donnell

2016

Geographical Research

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The impacts on the Australian coast of a changing climate include environmental and property damage arising from increased frequency and severity of coastal weather events, storm surge, coastal erosion, and coastal flooding. Coastal management policies and planning laws are often relied upon to manage both the impacts and competing interests in the coast. The existence of these policies and laws, and their interpretation by the courts, bears a weight of expectation upon them to deliver in the face of climate change which merits further consideration. Indeed, a rich field is open from which to consider the constitution and construction of law in and across different places, in the context of climate change adaptation. The Australian coast is a unique and locally specific context from which to explore the relationship between law and place as performed in the Vaughan litigation, and this paper considers such important potential as it gains expression in the Vaughan litigation.

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Displacement, Legal Mobilization, and Disasters: Trial Courts and Legal Process

Sterett¹,

Mateczun²

2020

Risk Hazard & Crisis Pub Pol

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The process of litigation is part of the decentered complex governance structure of risks and disaster. The process highlights problems that other institutions deflect. Courts are also part of defining problems in governing disaster. Scholarship drawing on legal decisions, including concerning environmental decision making, often relies upon the final decision from a highest court of appeal. Most cases settle, and courts make temporary decisions that other courts subsequently overturn or vacate. This process also names and deflects problems. Therefore, looking only to highest courts of appeals misstates how courts participate in governance. However, the process of litigating in lower courts is complex to follow, with partial decisions and settlements. This paper traces the histories of key housing assistance cases taken after Hurricane Katrina, following their multiple iterations as well as how later cases drew upon them, through 2018. Although initial decisions evinced concern for those who had lost their homes, flexible legal standards and limits on groups' ability to litigate allowed courts to limit government agencies’ accountability in court. This paper argues for integrating courts into the governance of risks and hazards, and for following trial courts and process.

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Climate Change Litigation

Cited by 128 publications

References 4 publications

Protecting the Environment and People from Climate Change through Climate Change Litigation

Protecting the Environment and People from Climate Change through Climate Change Litigation

Legal geography and coastal climate change adaptation: the Vaughan litigation

Displacement, Legal Mobilization, and Disasters: Trial Courts and Legal Process

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