Paper short abstract:

Using courtroom ethnography, this talk explores the modes of expression and silencing of climate justice claims in criminal trials brought against climate activists in Switzerland.

Paper long abstract:

The recent rise of climate civil disobedience has been met with a global wave of repression, not least in Europe. In Switzerland, this repression takes the form of criminal convictions by penal order, which activists regularly resist to have their case hear in court, despite the low likelihood of a complete acquittal and the resource-intensive nature of proceedings. This presentation therefore proposes to examine the criminal trials of climate activists as sites of political and moral negotiation beyond the stakes of state repression. It asks: What are the means by which climate activists are introducing climate justice claims into their criminal trials? Which of these claims are heard and which are silenced? How do these claims bear on their criminal cases? Drawing on courtroom ethnography, this research mobilizes insights from discourse and performance studies to illustrate how the structure of the trials and the dominant positivist paradigm of criminal law silence the voices of activists, scientists, and even of some judges, often leading to the conviction of the accused in an age of climate crisis.