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

该项目的目的是调查科学和社会运动框架在与气候变化有关的法庭案件中的作用。为了实现这一目标，我们将重点关注三个核心问题。社会运动是如何为法院构建科学和新的法律的理论的？法院如何回应这些案件，以及随着科学的不断完善，这些回应如何随着时间的推移而演变？ 法院的反应如何影响社会运动以及这些运动试图改变其行为的人？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。该项目包括若干教育和培训部分。研究生将参加研究的所有阶段，包括数据收集，分析和传播，从而获得关键的研究和写作技能。学生获得与气候变化有关的社会和法律的问题的专业知识，这是一个培训机会有限的领域。研究主任及其团队亦会制作一部纪录短片，介绍多个个案研究及量化结果，并透过公共电视台及专业机构发放，以传达研究结果。本研究的结果将为STS、社会运动研究和法律的研究提供新的理论联系。他们还将通过探索法院如何调解对气候变化的运动关注和反诉，为法律和社会领域做出贡献。在所有这些案件中，对有关气候相关损害原因的科学知识进行司法处理至关重要。更广泛地说，该项目的研究结果可能有助于改变我们对如何通过诉讼和监管推进气候变化问责的理解。它们还可以通过识别影响结果的社会运动和反诉过程、科学证据和法律的理论来塑造未来的气候变化诉讼。例如，如果发现司法决策以可识别的方式受到现有因果关系科学文献的影响，则可以建议社会运动原告起诉案件，并依赖法院接受的科学证据。或者，反诉可能会发现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必须采取不强调科学的法律的策略。

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.