Standard Research Grant: The Legal Mobilization of Science in Climate Change Litigation

这个项目的目的是调查科学和社会运动在与气候变化有关的法庭案件中的作用。这一目标将通过关注三个核心问题来实现。社会运动如何为法院框定科学和新的法律理论，以及反诉如何作为回应？法院如何应对这些案件，随着科学变得更加精致，这些回应是如何随着时间的推移而演变的？法院的回应如何影响社会运动以及这些运动试图改变其行动的人？为了回答这些问题，PI和她的团队将使用深入的定性方法，并对哥伦比亚大学法学院创建的国内气候变化诉讼数据库进行定量分析。该项目包括几个教育和培训部分。研究生将参与研究的所有阶段，包括数据收集、分析和传播，从而获得批判性研究和写作技能。该学生获得与气候变化相关的社会和法律问题方面的专业知识，这是一个培训机会有限的领域。PI和她的团队还将制作一部短纪录片，结合量化结果描绘几个案例研究，并寻求通过公共电视和专业组织分发，以传播研究结果。这项研究的结果将为STS、社会运动研究和法律研究之间提供新的理论联系。他们还将通过探索法院如何调解关于气候变化的运动关切和反索赔，为法律和社会领域做出贡献。在所有这些案件中，司法处理有关气候危害原因的科学知识是至关重要的。更广泛地说，这个项目的发现可能有助于改变我们对如何通过诉讼和监管来推进气候变化责任的理解。它们还可能通过确定影响其结果的社会运动和反索赔过程、科学证据和法律理论，来塑造未来的气候变化诉讼。例如，如果发现现有关于因果关系的科学文献以可识别的方式影响司法决策，则可建议社会流动原告提起诉讼，并依赖有法院已接受的科学证据的因果链。或者，人们可能会发现，反诉揭示了气候科学作为法庭证据的弱点，这可能意味着社会运动组织S必须采取不强调科学的法律策略。

General Audience SummaryThe aim of this project is to investigate the role of science and social movement framing in court cases having to do with climate change. That aim will be addressed by focusing on three central questions. How do social movements frame science and new legal theories for the courts, and how do counter-claims get leveraged in response? How do courts respond to these cases and how do these responses evolve over time as science becomes more refined? How do the courts' responses affect social movements and those whose actions these movements seek to change? In order to answer these questions, the PI and her team will use in-depth qualitative methods, and a quantitative analysis of the database of domestic climate change lawsuits created by Columbia University Law School. The project includes several educational and training components. A graduate student will take part in all phases of the research, including data collection, analysis, and dissemination, thus gaining critical research and writing skills. The student acquire expertise in social and legal issues related to climate change, a field with limited training opportunities. The PI and her team will also produce a short documentary film that portrays several of the case studies in combination with the quantitative findings, and seek to distribute it through public television and professional organizations in order to communicate the research findings. Technical SummaryThe results of this research will offer new theoretical interconnection between STS, social movement studies, and legal studies. They will also contribute to the field of law and society by exploring how the courts mediate movement concerns and counter-claims about climate change. Judicial treatment of scientific knowledge concerning the causes of climate-related harm is critical in all of these cases. More broadly, the findings of this project could serve to transform our understanding of how accountability for climate change is advanced through litigation and regulation. They may also serve to shape future climate-change lawsuits by identifying social movement and counter-claim processes, scientific evidence, and legal theories that affect their outcomes. For example, if it is found that judicial decision-making is influenced in identifiable ways by the existing scientific literature on causation, social movement plaintiffs could be advised to pursue cases and rely on chains of causation for which there is scientific evidence to which courts have been receptive. Alternatively, it might be found that counter-claims reveal the weaknesses of climate science as courtroom evidence, which might mean that social movement organizations s must engage in legal tactics that do not emphasize science.