Strategic Litigation in the Fields of Energy and Climate in Japan, France and Germany

Conflicts arising from climate and energy transition are increasingly brought before national and international courts. Climate change litigation targets both, states and companies, to achieve stronger climate measures or accountability for historical emissions. Energy litigation regularly channels opposition against local projects of new energy infrastructure, implementing climate mitigation measures. Both climate and energy litigation are regarded as potentially influential factors affecting climate governance and energy transition.

To better understand the origins and impact of legal mobilization, the concept of strategic litigation has been applied in the field of climate litigation. It provides also a promising analytical lens to learn more about energy litigation. Stemming from research on social movements it captures strategic agency behind legal mobilization to achieve not at least wider social, economic or political goals. A comparative study on Japan, France, and Germany promises especially valuable insights due to their different paths of energy transformation and litigation practices.

During the conference, we will discuss how we can conceptually capture strategic climate and energy litigation, which strategic elements we can identify empirically in Japan, France and Germany and what we can learn from identified similarities and differences. The conference aims to deepen our understanding of climate and energy litigation in comparative perspective as an expression of social and political tensions and its implications for climate and energy transition.

CONTE International Research Project