Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: 265 Abstract Around the world, plaintiffs exposed to climate-related harms or hazards are increasingly bringing tort claims against private corporations. Many argue that these lawsuits are dead on arrival because tort law is ill-equipped to address the complexities posed by climate change. In this article, I aim to demonstrate the opposite. I will show that causation is no longer an insurmountable hurdle and that plaintiffs stand a realistic chance of succeeding in court. Moreover, imposing a duty of care on major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters is neither arbitrary nor unfair, but fully consistent with well-established tort doctrine and case law. Applying the principle of several liability, major GHG emitters should be held liable in proportion to their contribution to the climate-related harm or hazard suffered by the plaintiff. To build my argument, I draw on a prominent climate liability case from Germany that was recently decided: Lliuya v RWE – in which the court endorsed many of the arguments presented here and confirmed that major GHG emitters can, in principle, be held liable for climate-related harms and hazards. Since the concepts of causation and duty of care share a common core across jurisdictions, my analysis of German doctrine and case law will offer valuable insights for climate liability litigation around the world.
Source: Journal of European Tort Law
Author: Jan-Erik Schirmer
Institution: European University Viadrina
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,712
OpenAlex ID: W4416747455
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