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In early 2022, an unprecedented flood event in Lismore, New South Wales plunged an entire community into trauma and chaos. I draw upon this event to highlight the imperative for climate activism in the academy. Activist research, and activist teaching in law classrooms, are already reshaping the law of the Holocene in response to the climate crisis and will increasingly do so. I suggest that, in light of their ecological privilege, academics must also modify their personal and professional conduct. We must all be climate activists, if only because climate will spare none of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manufacture, storage and disposal of plastics can have significant negative impacts on communities living near plastics facilities, which we have termed 'plastics communities'. This article discusses how the general environmental duty, under Victoria's reformed Environment Protection Act 2017, can be utilised by plastics communities. This duty has the potential to reduce the harm caused by plastics industries and contribute towards broader environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate litigation is on the rise. The role that nongovernmental organizations play in its facilitation is reflective in the numerous cases that are being brought by them to the Courts. However, it is not always easy and the NGOs have to face legal challenges in matters such as those relating to standing requirements ('who may sue') and validity of their claims. The present article attempts to analyse the working environment of the NGOs by taking references from different jurisdictions, with a special emphasis on the climate policy framework of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The final verdict to the Urgenda case provided by the Dutch Supreme Court has been called a victory in the fight to limit climate change and a milestone in public interest litigation, at least in the Netherlands. As a consequence, the Dutch state will have to reduce GHG-emissions by 25% compared with 1990 at the end of 2020. The judgment has attracted widespread acclaim for being 'courageous' and exploring unknown legal territory. However, a closer look at the reasoning of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court still leaves many questions, which are address in this manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supreme Court's ruling in the Urgenda climate case requires that the Netherlands government step up the fight against climate change to reduce CO2 emissions by the end of 2020 by 25% (relative to 1990). Urgent action against 'dangerous climate change' was deemed scientifically necessary to safeguard the right to life of Netherlands residents. Upon close analysis, however, this revolutionary judgment appears to be based on uncritical examination of the factual evidence presented by Urgenda, judicial misappropriation of legislative power, expansive interpretations of the applicable law, careless or incomplete reasoning, and intentional omissions. Due to these deficiencies, the court's ruling will have serious consequences for future policy-making in The Netherlands and the liability exposure of companies in relation to climate change. This article analyses the judgment and discusses its implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While legal scholarship seeks mainly to assess the impact of climate change litigation (CCL) on the regulatory state and on climate change policy in common law countries, the potential influence of government climate policy on the judicial practices of jurisdictions with different legal traditions attracts much less attention. This article fills the gaps by exploring how courts in China, an authoritarian country with a civil law tradition, react to government climate policies and how this judicial response might affect relevant legal rules and eventually contribute to climate regulation. An empirical analysis of 177 Chinese judicial cases reveals that CCL in China consists mostly of contract-based civil actions steered by the government's low-carbon policies. Moreover, although the prospects of CCL against public authorities in China remain very bleak, there is scope for the emergence of tort-based CCL, backed by government policies. In this respect, recent tort-based public interest litigation on air pollution in China may serve as a substitute or, more promisingly, a gateway to the emergence of a tort-based branch of Chinese CCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 9 October 2018, the Court of Appeal of The Hague (the Netherlands) upheld the District Court's decision in the case of Urgenda , thus confirming the obligation of the Netherlands to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 25% by 2020 compared with levels in 1990. This case raised some of the thorniest issues in climate law. As the Netherlands is responsible for only a tiny fraction of global GHG emissions, is it right for a court to hold that a national emissions reduction mitigation target is necessary to prevent dangerous climate change and its impact on human rights? If so, how can this target be determined? The District Court and the Court of Appeal of The Hague have provided inspiring responses, although they are perhaps not entirely convincing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the opportunities to use international human rights law to protect one's right to life against the effects of climate change. It discusses four legal avenues: greening the existing human rights paradigm, formulating a new substantive right to the environment, public interest litigation and intergenerational justice. This is illustrated with case law from the European Court of Human Rights and various national jurisdictions. The main finding is that the human rights system should become more open towards public interest litigation and intergenerational justice, complemented by a broadening of the standing requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]