Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle
This article examines three constitutional environmental provisions and how they have been applied by courts in Europe in three climate cases from Norway, Germany and France. In each of these cases, directive principles, that is, constitutionally entrenched state obligations to protect social values...
Published in: | Journal of Environmental Law |
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Uppsala universitet, Kollegiet för avancerade studier (SCAS)
2023
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Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-500816 https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqac024 |
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ftuppsalauniv:oai:DiVA.org:uu-500816 2023-11-05T03:39:43+01:00 Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle Hellner, Agnes Epstein, Yaffa 2023 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-500816 https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqac024 eng eng Uppsala universitet, Kollegiet för avancerade studier (SCAS) Uppsala universitet, Juridiska institutionen Senior Lecturer, Stockholm University Faculty of Law Oxford Journal of environmental law, 0952-8873, 2023, 35:2, s. 207-227 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-500816 doi:10.1093/jel/eqac024 ISI:000915852800001 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Law Juridik Article in journal info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2023 ftuppsalauniv https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqac024 2023-10-11T22:32:00Z This article examines three constitutional environmental provisions and how they have been applied by courts in Europe in three climate cases from Norway, Germany and France. In each of these cases, directive principles, that is, constitutionally entrenched state obligations to protect social values, generally by enacting legislation, played a key role in judicial decisions regarding climate change mitigation. We engage with Lael K. Weis’s analytical framework on directive principles to clarify the allocation of institutional responsibility for climate change mitigation as applied in these three cases, and argue that clarifying these roles alleviates some of the criticism regarding the democratic legitimacy of judicial decision making on climate change. Importantly, while courts do not directly enforce these types of constitutional directive principles, they must adjudicate them. When courts interpret constitutionally mandated legislation in light of directive principles, they develop new constitutional environmental norms. While most scholarly analysis of environmental constitutionalism has focused on environmental rights, our examination confirms Weis’s thesis that directive principles aimed at legislatures are also important forms of environmental constitutionalism, and deserving of further attention. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) Journal of Environmental Law 35 2 207 227 |
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Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) |
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English |
topic |
Law Juridik |
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Law Juridik Hellner, Agnes Epstein, Yaffa Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle |
topic_facet |
Law Juridik |
description |
This article examines three constitutional environmental provisions and how they have been applied by courts in Europe in three climate cases from Norway, Germany and France. In each of these cases, directive principles, that is, constitutionally entrenched state obligations to protect social values, generally by enacting legislation, played a key role in judicial decisions regarding climate change mitigation. We engage with Lael K. Weis’s analytical framework on directive principles to clarify the allocation of institutional responsibility for climate change mitigation as applied in these three cases, and argue that clarifying these roles alleviates some of the criticism regarding the democratic legitimacy of judicial decision making on climate change. Importantly, while courts do not directly enforce these types of constitutional directive principles, they must adjudicate them. When courts interpret constitutionally mandated legislation in light of directive principles, they develop new constitutional environmental norms. While most scholarly analysis of environmental constitutionalism has focused on environmental rights, our examination confirms Weis’s thesis that directive principles aimed at legislatures are also important forms of environmental constitutionalism, and deserving of further attention. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hellner, Agnes Epstein, Yaffa |
author_facet |
Hellner, Agnes Epstein, Yaffa |
author_sort |
Hellner, Agnes |
title |
Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle |
title_short |
Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle |
title_full |
Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle |
title_fullStr |
Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle |
title_full_unstemmed |
Allocation of Institutional Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation: Judicial Application of Constitutional Environmental Provisions in the European Climate Cases Arctic Oil, Neubauer, and l’Affaire du siècle |
title_sort |
allocation of institutional responsibility for climate change mitigation: judicial application of constitutional environmental provisions in the european climate cases arctic oil, neubauer, and l’affaire du siècle |
publisher |
Uppsala universitet, Kollegiet för avancerade studier (SCAS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-500816 https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqac024 |
genre |
Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change |
op_relation |
Journal of environmental law, 0952-8873, 2023, 35:2, s. 207-227 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-500816 doi:10.1093/jel/eqac024 ISI:000915852800001 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqac024 |
container_title |
Journal of Environmental Law |
container_volume |
35 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
207 |
op_container_end_page |
227 |
_version_ |
1781695614940086272 |