Climate Litigation Lab
Overview
Our Climate Litigation Lab, led by 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 climate litigation efforts in various jurisdictions and conduct research across the natural, social, and legal sciences to help enable just and effective legal outcomes at scale. To that end, the Climate Litigation Lab leverages the research carried out across the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and beyond to advance litigation-relevant insights.
Projects, programmes, and special initiatives
Project: Systemic Lawyering
Practitioners and academics lack a broad framework to assess and compare the systemic outcomes of legal interventions in the climate sphere, for both actual and projected results. They rely on ad hoc approaches to assess to how legal intervention can address climate change-related issues. As a result, interventions may be less effective than they could be and it is difficult to share understanding of strategic priorities across the community of practice.
We develop frameworks and approaches to evaluate the systemic impact of legal interventions. We refer to this approach as 'systemic lawyering', with the ultimate objective of triggering systemic change towards climate-friendly outcomes rather than measuring the outcome of a specific case or transaction. We will scale up the approach to establish multidisciplinary frameworks and evaluation tools, and apply these methods to a wider range of subjects beyond the pilot project on deforestation.
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
- Shrey Addagatla
Visiting Student at Worcester College, Oxford (Politics and Economics), Undergraduate Student at Princeton University (Operations Research and Financial Engineering)
Project: The role of legal financing in greenwashing litigation across jurisdictions. - Blaire Bernstein
Independent researcher
Project: Using law to address international state fossil fuel financing. - 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. - 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 made possible through the generous support of the KR Foundation, Glaser Progress Foundation, and Rockefeller Family Fund.