The increasing climate litigation in the Netherlands and Europe plays a crucial role in bringing to attention critical inconsistencies in law and governance of climate change. That is what Phillip Paiement, Professor of Law and Governance in the Anthropocene, argues in his inaugural address on Friday 29 November at Tilburg University.
Public interest litigation arising from climate change, the energy transition and diverse forms of environmental degradation and pollution is rapidly increasing in the Netherlands and Europe. As communities and interest groups encounter declining political will to seriously address these difficult challenges with just and enduring solutions, litigation and the courts will continue to feature as a helpful alternative forum for their campaigns.
This ’litigation of the Anthropocene’, as Phillip Paiement calls it, helps to unravel the deficiencies and problems of law and governance in the new Anthropocene paradigm. In this new paradigm, phenomena which were previously understood as exclusively ’natural’, such as our climate, are now understood to be fundamentally shaped by human activities. As a consequence, our legal and governance systems are confronting new questions of accountability and responsibility. Litigation plays a crucial role in bringing to attention critical inconsistencies in law and instances of injustice arising from the Anthropocene, and offering new accounts of how law could be transformed to better govern these challenges.
Separation of powers
Paiement’s research details the various roles that public interest litigation plays within our contemporary legal systems founded on the rule of law and separation of powers. Some cases ensure the proper implementation of laws that run up against the interests of majoritarian politics, he argues in his inaugural address. A case in point is recent litigation against KLM for their use of sustainability terminology and imagery in marketing campaigns for their airline services. This case sought the appropriate enforcement of rules from consumer protection and unfair commercial practices law which protect against misleading ’green’ claims in product marketing.
Other cases ensure the consistency of new laws and policies - or the absence thereof - with constitutional rights and principles, international law and human rights. The Urgenda decision is an illustration of such a case, evaluating the consistency of national climate laws with the protection of the human rights of Dutch residents.
Transnational networks
The field of public interest litigation of climate change and environmental justice is also increasingly characterized by the work of transnational professional networks and social movements which channel strategies, evidence, arguments and resources between national and local contexts. Paiement’s research studies when lawyers engage with these transnational professional networks and how the networks in turn affect their case work. With this empirical research, we can better understand how lawyers shape their cases in pursuit of legal transformations simultaneously at local and global levels.
Inaugural address
Prof. Phillip Paiement will deliver his inaugural address entitled ’Unravelling litigation of the Anthropocene’ on Friday, 29 December 2024 in the Auditorium of Tilburg University. It can also be attended via livestream .
