CLIMATE LITIGATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
Keywords:
Climate litigation;, Environmental law enforcement;, Climate justice;, Legal accountability;, Sustainable governanceAbstract
Climate change has emerged as one of the most urgent global challenges, generating profound environmental degradation, economic disruption, and social vulnerability across nations. The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, rising global temperatures, biodiversity loss, and ecological imbalance demonstrate that conventional regulatory approaches have often been insufficient in ensuring effective environmental protection. In this context, climate litigation has developed as a contemporary legal mechanism capable of strengthening environmental law enforcement by promoting accountability among states, corporations, and other actors whose activities significantly contribute to climate change. This study aims to analyse climate litigation as an instrument of contemporary environmental law enforcement and to examine its contribution to climate accountability, environmental justice, and sustainable governance. This research employs a normative juridical method using statutory, conceptual, and comparative case approaches by examining international environmental legal instruments, national legal frameworks, and landmark climate litigation cases in several jurisdictions. The findings indicate that climate litigation has transformed environmental law enforcement by expanding access to justice, reinforcing constitutional environmental rights, and compelling public and private institutions to adopt more concrete climate mitigation and adaptation measures. Furthermore, climate litigation has encouraged the progressive development of legal principles such as intergenerational equity, the precautionary principle, and the polluter pays principle in judicial reasoning. This study concludes that climate litigation serves not merely as a dispute resolution mechanism, but as a strategic legal instrument in advancing environmental governance, strengthening legal accountability, and supporting global efforts toward climate justice in the contemporary legal order.
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