Standard Research Grant: The Legal Mobilization of Science in Climate Change Litigation

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary The aim of this project is to investigate the role of science and social movement framing in court cases having to do with climate change. That aim will be addressed by focusing on three central questions. How do social movements frame science and new legal theories for the courts, and how do counter-claims get leveraged in response? How do courts respond to these cases and how do these responses evolve over time as science becomes more refined? How do the courts' responses affect social movements and those whose actions these movements seek to change? In order to answer these questions, the PI and her team will use in-depth qualitative methods, and a quantitative analysis of the database of domestic climate change lawsuits created by Columbia University Law School. The project includes several educational and training components. A graduate student will take part in all phases of the research, including data collection, analysis, and dissemination, thus gaining critical research and writing skills. The student acquire expertise in social and legal issues related to climate change, a field with limited training opportunities. The PI and her team will also produce a short documentary film that portrays several of the case studies in combination with the quantitative findings, and seek to distribute it through public television and professional organizations in order to communicate the research findings. Technical Summary The results of this research will offer new theoretical interconnection between STS, social movement studies, and legal studies. They will also contribute to the field of law and society by exploring how the courts mediate movement concerns and counter-claims about climate change. Judicial treatment of scientific knowledge concerning the causes of climate-related harm is critical in all of these cases. More broadly, the findings of this project could serve to transform our understanding of how accountability for climate change is advanced through litigation and regulation. They may also serve to shape future climate-change lawsuits by identifying social movement and counter-claim processes, scientific evidence, and legal theories that affect their outcomes. For example, if it is found that judicial decision-making is influenced in identifiable ways by the existing scientific literature on causation, social movement plaintiffs could be advised to pursue cases and rely on chains of causation for which there is scientific evidence to which courts have been receptive. Alternatively, it might be found that counter-claims reveal the weaknesses of climate science as courtroom evidence, which might mean that social movement organizations s must engage in legal tactics that do not emphasize science.