Climate Litigation and Vulnerabilities : Global South Perspectives

This volume explores climate litigation as a means to tackle the rights and socio-ecological, intergenerational, gender, racial, and other justice implications of the ever-growing vulnerability to climate change, whilst critically engaging with the notions of vulnerability and intersectional climate justice.

With insightful analysis, thought-provoking case studies, and a global perspective, the collection illustrates the opportunities and pitfalls of litigation pursued by people from the Global South who face intersecting forms of oppression and marginalisation amidst the climate crisis. Contributors discuss litigation strategy, novel legal arguments, institutional barriers, and unique socio-ecological and political challenges in the Global South. Divided into two parts, the book recognises that climate change is an existential threat to humanity more frequently being tackled in courts worldwide. The first part exposes the limits of litigation as a mechanism for intersectional climate justice for vulnerable people in the Global South. The second part highlights innovations in climate litigation in pursuit of intersectional climate justice.

The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and policymakers in the areas of human rights law, environmental law, climate law, Latin American studies, South Asian studies, and African studies.

Maria Antonia Tigre is the Director of Global Climate Change Litigation at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School in New York, United States. She is originally from Brazil.

Melanie Jean Murcott is a South African intersectional climate justice scholar, and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Susan Ann Samuel is a lawyer in India and a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds – School of Politics and International Studies, United Kingdom.