Page - 180 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

180 F.SimlingerandB.Mayer towardsthosemostaffectedbyitsadverseimpacts.Ethicalperspectivesareexplored in the chapter byWallimann-Helmer et al. (2018) in this book, and the aimof the present chapter is to takestockof the legal literatureon the topic, to identifypoten- tial legalapproaches toL&D,andtoexplorepossibledirectionsforfurtherresearch. While theWarsaw InternationalMechanism is an important institutional develop- ment,itdoesnotappearastheuniqueentrypointforprovidingredressfortheadverse impacts of climate change. Inoutlininghowdiversedomesticor international legal frameworks could approach L&D, this chapter engageswith the relation between legalargumentsandnecessarypoliticalorscientificdevelopmentsatdifferentscales of the regimecomplex forclimatechange. Thechapter isorganisedas follows.Section7.2presentsdifferent approaches to climatelawlitigationbeforedomesticcourtsandhighlightsthemostprominentcases relevant to L&D. Section 7.3 briefly discusses whether regional and international humanrights lawisofavail to thoseaffectedmostbythe impactsofclimatechange. Section 7.4 highlights the potential of international litigation based on principles of customary international law. Section 7.5 turns to the developments taking place under the UNFramework Convention on Climate Change, including theWarsaw InternationalMechanismonLossandDamage(WIM).Section7.6finallydiscusses thedifferent legal responsesanalysedandconcludeswithpossibleways forward. 7.2 NationalLaws Recent years have seen a rapid development of national laws related to climate change.Fromonlya fewclimate laws in thepre-KyotoProtocol era, there arenow more than 1,200 laws and policies world-wide (Nachmany et al. 2017). Beyond a general focus on climate changemitigation, some of these laws have sought to address thedamagescausedbyclimatechange. Developmentshavealso takenplacebeforenational courts, oftendrivenby indi- vidualsorgroupsinterestedinbypassingtheinertiaofpoliticalinstitutions.Generally speaking, litigation ismore likely in “common law” jurisdictions, as largely based on the doctrine of precedent—the application of the rule identified by a court in a givencase to any similar subsequent cases.MostEnglish-speakingcountries apply asystemof“common law,”whileothercountriesapplya formof“civil law,”based onextensivecodescovering fundamental areasof law. Litigationcanbebasedonprivateorpublic law.Throughprivate lawlitigation,a person (individualorgroup)mayseekacourt’sfinding regarding the responsibility ofanotherpersonorprivateentityforharmssuffered.Throughpublic lawlitigation, a personmay seek a court’s finding regarding the obligation of the government or another public administration to take a particular course of action, for instance to mitigateclimatechange, toadapt to theimpactsofclimatechange,or tocompensate for losses and damages.Whether litigation leads to a favourable court decision or not, it contributes to raisingawareness andcreatingpoliticalmomentumfor further developments.