Climate Law Blog

By Isabela Soares Bicalho, Gabriel Mantelli, Maria Antonia Tigre and Carmem Añon Brasolin On March 30, 2022, the Brazilian Supreme Court, the most important judicial body in the country, will hear seven cases, and all of them are environmental cases. This is an atypical situation in the Brazilian context: having a full day focused on […]

By Maria Antonia Tigre On March 15, 2022, the Full Federal Court of Australia, an intermediate appellate court, unanimously overturned the primary judge’s decision in Sharma and Others v. Minister for the Environment to impose a duty of care on the Minister for the Environment to mitigate climate harm to your people in considering whether […]

By Prof. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, Phd* Background Countries around the world have increasingly adopted climate change laws over the last two decades. This is partially attributable to the dynamism in international climate negotiations but also a growing appreciation of the crucial role that national laws and policy measures play. Legislative instruments play a critical role […]

By Korey Silverman-Roati Background Starting in 2017, cities, counties, and states across the United States have filed claims (see here and here) in state courts against fossil fuel companies seeking redress for the climate harms their products have caused. Many of these cases asserted nuisance and other tort law claims. (More recently, states and municipalities […]

Climate Litigation in Latin America and the Caribbean: launching a regional Platform for Climate Litigation By Maria Antonia Tigre, Florencia Ortúzar, Javier Dávalos With the largest rainforest in the world, the largest freshwater reserves on the planet and the most significant amount of arable land where food is produced, the importance of Latin America and […]

By Amy Turner, Michael Burger & Jennifer Danis Today, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National League of Cities, the League of California Cities, and the California State Association of Counties in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth […]

By Jacob Elkin Today, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in West Virginia v. EPA, a case that is currently before the United States Supreme Court. The case concerns the scope of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority […]

A look back at significant decisions in climate litigation in 2021 By Maria Antonia Tigre 2021 was a significant year for climate litigation, with several decisions worldwide providing a fresh look at stakeholder responsibility for climate change. The verdicts have shown that courts increasingly recognize climate change as a human rights issue, and that judges […]

IEA v. Brazil: When a court accepts the legally disruptive nature of climate change By Maria Antonia Tigre, Délton Winter de Carvalho and Joana Setzer On December 07, 2021, the Federal Regional Court of the Fourth Region (TRF4) – one of Brazil’s federal courts of appeal – decided what should be the competent jurisdiction to […]

Sabin Center launches Peer Review Network of Global Climate Litigation By Maria Antonia Tigre Climate change litigation is growing worldwide. As part of our continual effort to update and maintain the Global Climate Change Litigation database, the Sabin Center has launched the Peer Review Network of Global Climate Litigation (“the Network”). The Network includes practitioners […]