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Accepted Paper:
Undoing climate justice in criminal courts: Towards a political ecology of climate litigation
Jevgeniy Bluwstein
(University of Bern)
Lucie Benoit
(University of Bern)
Paper Short Abstract:
Drawing on an analysis of criminal trials against climate activists in Switzerland, we examine how activists' political demands are articulated and transformed in criminal courts, and how the judiciary is undoing activists' climate justice claims through these trials.
Paper Abstract:
In this paper, we contribute to the growing field of climate litigation by offering a critical analysis of criminal trials against climate activists who have engaged in civil disobedience in the name of the climate emergency. Drawing on an analysis of criminal trials against climate activists in Switzerland, we examine how activists' political demands are articulated and transformed in criminal courts, and how the judiciary is undoing climate justice claims through these trials. Ultimately, we seek to advance a critical understanding of climate litigation and its political limits by highlighting I) the role of activists, lawyers and judges in (de)politicizing environmental justice claims, and II) the broader political economic context in which the adjudication of civil disobedience takes place through criminal trials.