Appeal allowed! Mr Smith can proceed with his claim. A ground-breaking day for climate litigation and tort law in the common law world. The Supreme Court held that there was no reason, at the strike out stage, to conclude that tort law could not apply in the realm of climate change and that this was not overriden by the statutory regime. Further, the Court differed from the Court of Appeal on the role of "special damage" and causation in public nuisance. As a result, it considered it was appropriate to also allow the negligence and novel duty claims to proceed. The claims will now be subject to a full substantive consideration (a strike out application only considers whether the claims have no reasonably arguable basis, i.e. the claim is so untenable that it cannot succeed). More analysis to follow! #climatechange #climatelitigation #esglitigation #esg
The Smith climate change judgment will be released by the Supreme Court at 11am on Wednesday. Regardless of the result, it will be a big deal. Unsurprisingly, I’ve cleared my afternoon 👀⚖️⬇️ Mr Smith alleges that seven large corporates have harmed him in nuisance, negligence and a novel duty of care through their emissions. It’s the first attempt to apply tort law (the law allowing people to claim compensation for harm caused by private wrongs based on the parties’ relationship) to climate change litigation. Internationally, these claims are often based on misrepresentation, securities law, statutory obligations on companies, human rights law or public law against states. All three claims were struck out (i.e. dismissed at a preliminary stage on legal grounds) by the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court heard a week of arguments in August 2022 and will decide whether the case proceeds to a full hearing (with discovery, evidence and a High Court hearing). This Wednesday’s judgment will have significant impacts on the future of climate change litigation in New Zealand and the rest of the world (I know from my European colleagues how often the High Court and Court of Appeal decisions in Smith have been cited there). We’ll have some initial reaction out on Wednesday, followed by more detailed commentary. #climatechange #climatelitigation #esg #esglitigation 📸 Ralph Hutter / Unsplash
Ground-breaking indeed! Thanks for your coverage.
Chief Operating Officer | Helping drive tomorrow’s Safer Cities
10moThanks for sharing 👏