Courses on climate change law, environmental law, open judges’ eyes to the coming storm
New awareness of climate change and litigation associated with it, has dramatically changed the perception of over 20 judges who attended a training course on environmental law and climate change law under the auspices of Jifa last month. Almost all of them started out unsure of what climate change law actually is, and doubting whether they would ever be involved in litigation concerning climate change.
Judges arrived for Jifa’s recent training on environmental law and climate change law, a little confused. Most knew about environmental law and some had even dealt with cases that raised issues of environmental law. But what was climate change law? Was it something different? Another branch of environmental law, perhaps? Might it actually even be the same thing? And what could the role of the judiciary be in relation to climate change? – Surely it was something that international organisations dealt with, rather than domestic courts?