Climate Litigation Lab

Overview

Our Climate Litigation Lab, led by Dr. Benjamin Franta, applies rigorous, multidisciplinary research methods to practical challenges presented by climate change litigation. We interface with climate litigation practitioners and stakeholders from around the world to understand the strategic and evidentiary landscape informing legal action and conduct research across the natural, social, and legal sciences to help enable just and effective legal outcomes at scale. The Climate Litigation Lab is embedded within the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and collaborates widely with researchers and practitioners across the University and beyond.

Our areas of research include:

  • Damages: We measure and quantify harms caused by climate change around the world to inform legal action, public policy, and journalism.
  • Investigations: We investigate legally relevant obstruction of and solutions for the sustainability transition to accelerate effective action on climate change.
  • Legal strategy: We conduct legal research to promote accountability, effective remedies, and a healthier world for people and nature.

Special projects and initiatives

Project: Addressing Greenwashing Through Machine Learning and Law

Greenwashing — the practice of portraying activities, products, or companies as more environmentally friendly than they actually are — has become widespread. In the context of climate change, greenwashing is especially harmful, since it can confuse consumers and the broader public about the causes and solutions to climate change, resulting in misdirected attention and wasted time. In collaboration with the Oxford Department of Computer Science and outside partners, we are developing innovative, machine-learning-based tools to assist lawyers, journalists, and researchers in identifying greenwashing and taking action to counteract it.

 

Interested in Working With Us?

The Climate Litigation Lab is growing. Work, partnership, and collaboration inquiries can be sent to lab head Dr. Benjamin Franta at benjamin.franta@smithschool.ox.ac.uk.

Collaborations

  • Blaire Bernstein
    Independent researcher
    Project: Using law to address international state fossil fuel financing.
  • Alexander Blackborough
    Student at Griffith University
    Project: Scoping historical and prospective financial impacts of mass torts on affected companies.
  • Cheryl Cheung
    Researcher
    Project: Exploring potential applications of Victim Compensation Funds in the context of U.S. climate litigation.
  • Patrick Hegarty Morrish
    DPhil Student, Trinity College, Oxford (History)
    Project: Mobile pastoralists and the international legal regime in a climate of change: case studies for strategic litigation.
  • Sindi Kuçi
    Independent Researcher
    Project: Litigation opportunities in the carbon offset industry.
  • Meghana (Meg) Patakota
    Data Scientist
    Project: Climate Litigation AI Resource Assistant (CLARA): Conversing with historic documents.
  • Katherine Quinn
    Independent researcher
    Project: Emerging principles of international environmental law: summary for litigators and policymakers.
  • Jemima Roe
    Clifford Chance
    Project: Novel remedies for climate litigation.
  • Jake Rutherford
    Researcher
    Project: Climate Litigation AI Resource Assistant (CLARA): Conversing with historic documents.
  • Dane White
    Student, Boston University School of Law
    Project: Material impacts of climate disinformation on consumers.
  • Gwenyth Wren 
    Student, Osgoode Hall Law School
    Project: The margins of empire: identifying promising jurisdictions where strategic climate litigation should be pursued.

Contact us

If you have any questions, would like to learn more, or want to get involved: please contact Benjamin Franta. For general questions about the programme please email Oxford Sustainable Law Programme information.


Research at the Climate Litigation Lab is generously supported by the KR Foundation, Rockefeller Family Fund, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Glaser Progress Foundation, and others.