Climate Change Litigation: a tool for Climate Governance? Comparing Global North and Global South

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

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.