Climate Change – Columbia Alliance

Project

Climate Change and Corporate Responsibility in the Court: A Comparative Dialogue (2025-2026)

International project: Climate Change Litigation: a tool for Climate Governance? Comparing Global North and Global South, 2024-2025

ISJPS, Sabin Center for Climate Change law (Columbia University), Programme Alliance (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)

Awarded with a Grant under the Alliance Joint Projects Program

Investigators

Marta Torre-Schaub, ISJPS (University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CNRS)
Michael Burger, Columbia University
Michael Gerrard, Columbia University

Presentation

Climate change remains a multidimensional global pollution problem arising from the world’s social, economic and legal systems. The risks it presents continue to threaten most if not all aspects of society, including physical infrastructure, natural systems, food security, human health, and financial stability. In the face of failures and shortfalls from political and corporate leaders, many civil society actors have taken to courtrooms to seek justice through the implementation of climate policies and the recognition of a right to be protected from the worst impacts of climate change. This project enhances the ongoing collaborations between Columbia and Sorbonne Law Schools to advance the analysis of innovative legal and policy tools that are mobilized in the field of climate change. The project will focus on a comparative study of climate litigation. A series of joint seminars and workshops will be organized both in New York and Paris: LL.M and PhD students from both Law Schools will take a lead role in the discussion and exchange around these emerging issues, with a particular focus on litigation in France, the European Union, the United States of America, Latin America, and Africa.

Event

Paris Summer Climate Conference
Corporate Climate Accountability Litigation: Law, Strategy and Accountability
Workshop

June 15, 2026 | Columbia Global Center, Paris
Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, the GDR ClimaLex, CNRS, and the Institute of Legal and Philosophical Sciences (ISJPS) at Université Paris 1-Pantheon Sorbonne, with the support of the Columbia Global Paris Center and the Alliance Program organize the Corporate Climate Accountability Litigation: Law, Strategy and Accountability Summer Workshop.
The workshop brings together a group of experts to examine the evolving legal theories, procedural dynamics, evidentiary challenges, and remedial approaches shaping corporate accountability for climate harm.
The workshop is designed as a collaborative research exchange. Contributions should therefore engage with broader conceptual, comparative, or theoretical questions. The workshop is designed as an exceptional opportunity for early career researchers.

Co-organizing Partners
Columbia Global Paris Center · Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School · GDR ClimaLex, CNRS · Institut des sciences juridiques et philosophiques de la Sorbonne (ISJPS), Université Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne · Alliance Program

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law · Columbia Law School · Columbia Global Center
Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris