MANCEPT Workshop on Justice in Climate Litigation

This workshop will focus on questions of justice raised by efforts to litigate the climate crisis. 

As climate change progresses, individuals and groups are increasingly turning to the courts in pursuit of climate justice. As of March 31, 2026, the Climate Litigation Database maintained by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law lists over 4800 climate court cases, nearly 70% of which were filed in the USA. Climate lawsuits have been used to pursue a variety of goals, including injunctions on fossil fuel extraction, stronger regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, the implementation or funding of adaptation measures, compensation for climate loss and damage, and even punishment of those who contribute to severe climate-related harm. Climate litigation may also be undertaken for strategic reasons, in an effort to promote awareness of the climate crisis, undermine the social license of those contributing to it, and spur more systemic change.

Though climate litigation is often used in an attempt to pursue goals of climate justice, its use for this purpose raises various normative questions. These include questions about the legitimate role of the courts in climate governance, and the potential for litigation to reproduce patterns of disadvantage due to the unequal accessibility of legal remedies. Some have also raised concerns that climate litigation could prove strategically counterproductive, for example by spurring political backlash. 

This workshop will examine how litigation might be used as a tool in the pursuit of climate justice, new concerns of justice that are raised by such efforts, and how such concerns might be addressed.

Questions that papers may examine include:

• How might litigation serve to promote or undermine climate justice?

• What role should courts play in climate governance?

• When should judicial interventions into climate policy be viewed as legitimate or illegitimate?

• How might climate litigation provide access to justice without reproducing existing inequalities?

• What kinds of legal innovation or evolution might be required for the law to adequately respond to the challenge of climate change?

• What are the ethical responsibilities of legal practitioners regarding climate litigation?

• What is the proper role of scientists, and scientific research, in supporting climate litigation?

• What role might philosophers and political theorists play in supporting climate litigation?