di Pasquale Viola
Environmental and climate issues are persistent topics within the global community, involving a wide range of knowledge’s branches and methodologies. From the realm of hard-sciences, these topics slowly entered into debates and studies in humanities (Gosh 2016), leading legal disciplines as well to adjust long-lasting doctrinal schemes according to novel theories and demands.
Abstract
The essay deals with environmental and climate issues conveying a ‘think different’ approach to the legal debate, introducing the connection between science and law in reference to climate and environmental issues. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the inquiry focuses on constitutional clauses and state norms recognizing peculiar prerogatives for natural entities and environmental rights (Ecuador, Bolivia and New Zealand), as well as on remarkable leading cases concerning procedural and substantial rights (Colombia and India) and state responsibility for lacking climate actions (The Netherlands). Finally, the critical approach suggests key-questions that could merge environmental and climate justice/litigation, as well as foster the debate on new legal paradigms, mainly addressed to EU legal systems.