Research Commons
      • Browse 
        • Communities & Collections
        • Titles
        • Authors
        • By Issue Date
        • Subjects
        • Types
        • Series
      • Help 
        • About
        • Collection Policy
        • OA Mandate Guidelines
        • Guidelines FAQ
        • Contact Us
      • My Account 
        • Sign In
        • Register
      View Item 
      •   Research Commons
      • University of Waikato Research
      • Science and Engineering
      • Science and Engineering Papers
      • View Item
      •   Research Commons
      • University of Waikato Research
      • Science and Engineering
      • Science and Engineering Papers
      • View Item
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

      Causality and the fate of climate litigation: The role of the social superstructure narrative

      Otto, Friederike E. L.; Minnerop, Petra; Raju, Emmanuel; Harrington, Luke J.; Stuart‐Smith, Rupert F.; Boyd, Emily; James, Rachel; Jones, Richard; Lauta, Kristian C.
      Thumbnail
      Files
      Global Policy - 2022 - Otto - Causality and the fate of climate litigation The role of the social superstructure narrative.pdf
      554.9Kb
      DOI
       10.1111/1758-5899.13113
      Link
       doi.org
      Find in your library  
      Permanent link to Research Commons version
      https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15208
      Abstract
      Climate litigation has become a strategic tool to push for climate justice, including compensation for losses caused by climate change. Many cases rely on the establishment of a causal relationship between the defendants' emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and the plaintiffs' losses. All decided cases seeking compensation for a concrete climate related impact have been unsuccessful (thus far). Legal scholars as well as social and natural scientists have looked at individual cases and evidence of these unsuccessful claims, aiming to identify legal and scientific hurdles. Based on previous research where we analysed specific cases, we step back from a case-specific analysis in this article and identify the social context in which law and science operate and intersect. We assert that without a general understanding of the urgency of climate change and the scientifically proven fact that climate change impacts the present, and that it is possible to attribute individual losses to human-caused climate change, the fate and future of climate litigation focusing on losses and damages will continue to encounter major obstacles in courts. This is despite the increasingly sophisticated strategies of litigants; the positive outcome of some strategic litigation and improvements in the field of climate science, all of which would be expected to sway for a successful future of the fight against climate change.
      Date
      2022
      Type
      Journal Article
      Publisher
      Wiley
      Rights
      This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

      © 2022 The Authors. Global Policy published by Durham University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
      Collections
      • Science and Engineering Papers [3118]
      Show full item record  

      Usage

      Downloads, last 12 months
      15
       
       
       

      Usage Statistics

      For this itemFor all of Research Commons

      The University of Waikato - Te Whare Wānanga o WaikatoFeedback and RequestsCopyright and Legal Statement