CANCELED - The Constitutional Mitigation of Climate Change

Carlos Libardo Bernal-Pulido
Associate Professor, Macquarie Law School (Sydney, Australia)

Mitigating climate change is a global goal that a number of countries have signed on to through climate change agreements such as the 2015 Paris Agreement. In addition, several countries – particularly in the Global South – have recently adopted constitutions that commit them to climate change mitigation.        

Within this framework of international and constitutional laws, Carlos Libardo Bernal-Pulido examines the role constitutional and supreme courts play in mitigating climate change. He endorses the claim that the existing framework empowers those courts with the transformative role of catalyzing political authorities and private powers to take suitable measures to mitigate climate change. He also explores the limits of the enforcement of this principle and, by means of a critical analysis of comparative jurisprudence, considers how courts should balance the mitigation of climate change against competing principles.