ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will investigate some of the ethical complexities raised by the rising tide of climate litigation. The focus on human rights is central to these debates and so we begin by making some conceptual connections among human rights, climate litigation, and the realism/idealism distinction. Next, because establishing causal connections between the wrongdoer and the wronged is so central to successful litigation, we examine the new science of extreme weather event attribution. In the final three sections we analyze, in turn, three areas in which legal instruments are being used to redress or bring wider attention to some of the harms of climate disruption: tort law, international law, and civil disobedience.
