Climate Change in Tort Law? The New Regulatory and External Effect of Suits against Private Actors

Tort-based climate-change suits against private companies have begun to surface in Europe. This chapter identifies three different strategies for the use of tort law in such suits and shows how the regulatory effect has become still clearer. It goes beyond the traditional deterrent effect of tort law and obliges not only compensation for damage suffered in the past but also policy changes for the future. In addition, this regulatory effect may well reach beyond the borders of the EU. Firstly, basic tort law concepts may be exportable to other jurisdictions with similar tort law traditions. Secondly, since private companies form part of large global supply chains, company policies can affect not only the company itself but the entire group of companies as well as contractual partners based outside of the EU. In this way, the regulatory effect of tort law also becomes external. One might speak of a climate change in tort law itself.