The Role of Litigation in Multilevel Climate Change Governance: Possibilities for a Lower Carbon Future?

Abstract

As the international community continues to struggle to address the problem of climate change, an increasing number of lawsuits at international, national, and sub-national levels have explored mitigation and adaptation concerns. Drawing from the comparative experiences of the United States and Australia in responding to climate change, this article provides a novel model for understanding the direct and indirect regulatory pathways that litigation provides in common law jurisdictions. This model and its application help to illuminate the role of litigation in multilevel climate change governance.

Keywords: climate change, litigation, multi-level governance, polycentric governance, regulation, comparative law