Catalytic Climate Litigation: Rights and Statutes

Rights-based climate litigation has captured the global legal imagination in part because of its aspiration to achieve a certain function: catalysing political and policy processes into more ambitious climate action across the entire government apparatus. But many jurisdictions lack the legal opportunity structure that allows rights to perform this function. Instead, litigants might look to framework statutes as a way to trigger climate catalysis through litigation. Legal and mobilisation strategies drawing on both rights and framework statutes could prove an effective approach in future litigation.