Climate Change Law in Europe

As compared to other areas of law, climate change law is relatively novel and not well defined yet. Its hard core aims at the regulation of climate change mitigation and adaptation. It has a considerable overlap with energy law, as a mitigation policy cannot be without an energy transition. Furthermore, legal scholars specialized in a wide range of areas are increasingly exploring how climate change and its socio-economic impacts relate to their area of expertise. This wider circle of climate change-related expertise is booming. Prominent examples include the nexus between climate change and human rights and the nexus between climate change and biodiversity protection. The only criterion to label this diverse legal research and expertise as climate change law is a functional one: whatever serves the legal handling of new issues raised by climate change 'is' climate change law. A recent phenomenon in climate change law is the development of national climate change litigation as a transnational governance mechanism: national court judges influence one another from country to country, co-creating case-law regarding shared legal issues. The SRN rides this dynamic wave of legal innovation and evolutions.

Keywords:ENERGY & CLIMATE POLICY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, CLIMATE CHANGE

Disciplines:Environmental law, Human rights law, Litigation, adjudication and dispute resolution

Project type:Collaboration project