The First Successful Climate Negligence Case: A Comment on Urgenda Foundation v. The State of the Netherlands

14 Pages Posted: 3 Jul 2015 Last revised: 16 Jul 2015

See all articles by Jolene Lin

Jolene Lin

National University of Singapore (NUS) - Faculty of Law

Date Written: July 2, 2015

Abstract

On 24 June 2015, the Hague District Court issued the long-awaited judgment in the case of Urgenda Foundation v the State of the Netherlands. The decision has been heralded as a historical landmark ruling, and rightly so. The Urgenda decision marks the first time ever that a court has ordered a government of the day to curb a State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Globally, it is also the first case in which the tort of negligence has been successfully used to hold a State liable for its failure to adequately mitigate climate change. This case commentary begins by briefly setting out some background on climate litigation. It then sets out the facts of the case and analyses key aspects of the decision. It concludes with some remarks about the significance of the decision.

Keywords: Climate Change, Tort, Environmental Law, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Human Rights

Suggested Citation

Lin, Jolene, The First Successful Climate Negligence Case: A Comment on Urgenda Foundation v. The State of the Netherlands (July 2, 2015). Climate Law (Brill), 2015 Forthcoming, University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 2015/021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2626113

Jolene Lin (Contact Author)

National University of Singapore (NUS) - Faculty of Law ( email )

469G Bukit Timah Road
Eu Tong Sen Building
Singapore, 259776
Singapore

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
990
Abstract Views
3,300
Rank
42,398
PlumX Metrics