Climate emergency under judicial scrutiny

Climate litigation has increased dramatically around the world. It consists of strategic lawsuits that demand structural changes from states and companies, mainly in order to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gases, improve adaptation to global warming and respect human rights. It is a phenomenon of legal globalization that has an impact on the procedural autonomy of each country, due to the impact of the rulings of international courts and other states.
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The book, which has been published simultaneously in paper and in the open access digital version in the Digital Repository of the University of Barcelona, examines the most relevant characteristics of climate litigation, as well as the current situation in different countries of the European Union, Latin America and Asia. It also describes the most prominent cases with the aim of raising awareness of this form of access to justice in the fight against climate change. Moreover, this book, written by some twenty specialists from different disciplines and backgrounds, raises new perspectives on the relationship between the legislative, executive and judicial powers.

Coinciding with the United Nations Human Rights Day, the book will be presented next Tuesday, 10 December, at 10.30 a.m., in the vestibule of the Faculty of Law. Climate Litigación climática. El papel de la ciudadanía y los jueces is the latest publication in the Dret UB collection, which brings together ten works of specialization and reflection on various branches of this discipline. Among the latest titles are Derechos y libertades. Casos prácticos, by Mar Aguilera Vaqués (also published in English); Let’s govern together! The formation of a coalition government, by Jordi Matas Dalmases, and Experiencias de docencia semipresencial en el título de Derecho, edited by Enriqueta Expósito and Max Turull.

Alexandre Peñalver i Cabré(dir.) is a professor of Administrative Law and coordinator of the Environmental Law Clinic at the UB’s Faculty of Law. He is a member of the Observatory of Environmental Policies, in the area of access to justice, and is a member of the Environmental Defence Fund, the Academy of Environmental Law of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the international network of environmental attorneys Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW).