Identifying the limits of climate change litigation

Abstract

Climate change litigation is awakening a lot of interest and hope within both academia and civil society. While certainly chalking out an empowering avenue to force governments and companies to take more ambitious actions, it clashes with structural limits present in international law. These limits appear in litigation and impede the adoption of transformative measures with a universal reach. Without disregarding that the praxis of climate litigation can also contribute to solidify some of these very same limits, this article analyses the appearance of three of them: the primacy enjoyed by international investment law over international environmental law, the North- South divide, and the intricacies of implementation.