28 August 2026
New Zealand’s Shameful Climate Tort Law – And What Climate Lawyers Can Learn from It
New Zealand’s Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Act became law on 24 August 2026. The Act is the first national law to comprehensively rule out civil liability for activities that cause harm by contributing to climate change. The stagnating political salience of climate change presents significant challenges for climate lawyers, who must consider the viability of their claims in both courts and the political process. Continue reading >>
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26 August 2022
What’s wrong with good “scholactivism”?
There is a fine line between suspicion based on the nature of the motivation (seeking direct material change), and the substance of the motivation (commitment to a particular normative position). Once the “scholactivist” label gets thrown around, it may be hard to maintain that distinction. And it is to normative positions which advocate new ideas or change – including those that are reflective or well-considered – to which the label is most likely to attach.
Continue reading >>25 March 2022
Indigenous Climate Litigation in Anglophone Settler-Colonial States
The legacy of colonialism suggests a shared affinity between climate litigation in the Global South, and climate litigation brought by Indigenous peoples in the settler-colonial states of the Global North. This blog post focuses on claims brought by Indigenous peoples in the Anglophone settler-colonial states of Australia, Canada, the United States and Aotearoa/New Zealand. I begin by setting out the disproportionate impact of climate change experienced by Indigenous peoples, as well as Indigenous movements of resistance and adaptation. In doing so, I draw on claims brought by various Indigenous groups and individuals in the course of climate litigation. Framing climate litigation as part of this response, I then survey Indigenous climate litigation across the four jurisdictions. I end with some notes of caution regarding the essentializing and exploitation of Indigenous peoples by the climate litigation movement, cautions which may be applicable to litigation in the Global South. Continue reading >>
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