Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our times engulfing almost all academic disciplines. There is now widespread recognition that the impacts of climate change adversely affect life on our planet. Despite sociological and natural science methods, legal tools can be one of the main instruments for addressing the phenomenon of climate change adaptation and mitigation for reducing the negative effects. Therefore, for an effective legal system it is necessary to explore the different legal avenues for enforcing measures addressing climate change. In addition to national legal orders and litigation before domestic courts, there are a number of possibilities of climate change litigation at the international and the European level. The research project is meant to identify and analyse various existing avenues for such litigation, namely in front of human rights bodies, the WTO, investment arbitral tribunals, the European court of Human rights and the European Court of Justice, to name some.

The aim of the project is to conduct an initial intra-disciplinary investigation of various legal fields that could provide for opportunities to effectively litigate against conduct that exacerbates negative consequences of climate change like sea level rise, increasing temperature, desertification and others.

The project team is composed of established legal scholars, including those with experience in deciding cases of climate change litigation before international mechanisms (UN Human Rights Committee, European Court of Human Rights) and legal practitioners. The project is supported by the Bavarian Research Alliance and meant to be developed into a European research project.