Consciously transnational: Urgenda and the shape of climate change litigation: The State of the Netherlands (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy) v Urgenda Foundation

Abstract

Moving the focus of climate change litigation from a largely US arena to a global one, Urgenda has helped to foster a burgeoning transnational climate justice jurisprudence. In the first place, it demonstrates how domestic courts are increasingly being used as sites to solidify international commitments. Secondly, it shows that these domestic endeavours are helping to shape the jurisprudence of other states whose courts are increasingly asked to adjudicate on climate change commitments. What is more, courts are conscious of this effect, thus this emerging jurisprudence is not simply an unintended consequence of the localisation of global commitments but is becoming an explicit practice on the part of domestic courts. This case note unpacks and examines the transnational dimensions of the global climate change case law as they are played out in the final decision of the Urgenda litigation.