Movement Lawyering in the Time of the Climate Crisis

Abstract

While climate litigation has emerged as a tool to tackle rising emissions and its devastating consequences, climate litigation as a strategy and movement has yet to be thoroughly analyzed through the lens of movement lawyering. Thus, this paper seeks to draw from existing literature on movement lawyering to explore the relationship between climate litigation and movement lawyering principles, addressing separate yet related questions: What does it mean to be a movement lawyer working on climate change? How do principles of climate justice shape movement lawyering and thus, climate litigation? How do lawyers think about accountability to their clients and the broader climate movement? What, if any, are the implications of having climate change litigation that is not grounded on a movement lawyering model? INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 3 I. UNPACKING THE CONCEPT OF MOVEMENT LAWYERING ............................................................................... 4 II. THE RISE OF CLIMATE CHANGE LITIGATION ........... 9 III. DISCUSSION ................................................................. 13 A. Litigation Inspired by Distributive Justice ...................... 15 B. Movement-driven litigation ............................................... 19 C. Tort litigation ..................................................................... 22 * J.D. Yale Law School, Visiting Assistant Professor of Human Rights at Trinity College (Fall 2021), Associate in Human Rights Practice at the University Network for Human Rights. Email address: camilabustos93@gmail.com. Mailing address: 55 Walnut St, Apt 5, New Haven, CT 06511.