Legal Liability and Climate Change: Courts Holding Governments Accountable
Formal and Informal Powers of the Judiciary to Address Climate Change
People are increasingly taking to the courts to force governments and businesses to comply with and expedite climate change commitments. In contrast to the issues of legal liability for harm caused to the environment, health, and property, settled at the national and international levels, climate legal liability has objective limitations. Informally, judiciary forces governments and businesses to comply with and support goals to reduce climate change. However, this is formally possible in case of initiating an issue; that is, the court cannot act independently.
Judiciary’s Actions to Combat Climate Change So Far
Climate laws or by-laws define the rights and obligations of subjects of law in addition to human rights or consumer rights established in national constitutions and other sources of public or private (civil) law (Jester et al., 2022). Violating established rights and obligations, causing damage due to climate change, gives citizens and organizations the right to apply to the courts at the national or international level.
The global increase in temperature is mainly caused by human activities, which lead to an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases from many other emissions. Existing environmental legislation in developed and developing countries allows at least a climate claim. Through the courts, citizens or associations of citizens are asked to establish the legal liability of climate pollutants. The judiciary can also restrict greenhouse gas emissions, enforce damages, or make public climate change policies more effective.
Evaluation of the Judiciary’s Ability to Solve the Climate Change Crisis
The courts recognize that the threat of global warming cited by the plaintiffs is accurate, and companies or governments must share the responsibility for warming and its negative consequences for humanity. However, they believe the issue deserves a decision on a larger scale than that of a district judge or jury, thus relegating the matter to the legislature (Di Gregorio et al., 2019). However, the judiciary can be an active and important environmental advocate.
References
Di Gregorio, M., Fatorelli, L., Paavola, J., Locatelli, B., Pramova, E., Nurrochmat, D. R., May, P. H., Brockhaus, M., Sari, I. M., & Kusumadewi, S. D. (2019). Multi-level governance and power in climate change policy networks. Global Environmental Change, 54, 64–77. Web.
Jester, J., Fatima, S., Opoku, A., Bangalore, N., Hennawi, F., Nabbie, C., Saravanan, S., Duit, A., Hargrove, A., & Sommer, J. M. (2022). Narratives of environmentalism in national laws. The Journal of Environment & Development, 32(1), 3–33. Web.