2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Learning to think like a climate crisis lawyer: When case-based legal education engages with the Anthropocene thought experiment
| Project/Area Number |
22K01275
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
イザベル ジロドウ 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 准教授 (70713072)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2025-03-31
|
| Keywords | Climate litigation / Litigation strategies / Crisis lawyering / Judicialisation / Legal imaginaries / Chronotopes / Mock trials |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
During the last year, I focused on developing the part of my project that investigates (mostly through interviews with practicing lawyers involved in several "coal litigation" cases) the elaboration of novel climate litigation strategies in Japan. Based on distinct law's chronotopes/chronotopographies, such strategies, I argue, help shape the progressive opening up of legal reasoning to new narratives, at the interface of Earth system science and planetary social thought.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Although certain aspects of my fieldwork and research dissemination were restricted during the year, I managed to progress as planned with my project, producing several conference papers, having one article currently under review, and co-editing a special issue to be published by the end of the year (details and references are available on researchmap: https://researchmap.jp/00000000000000000000). My research, which is partly conducted in conjunction with my teaching activities at the University of Tokyo, has also led me to formulate a few related hypotheses which I hope to be able to explore as side projects, based on complementary teaching and research collaborations.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
My next step is twofold: 1) Having identified the various strategies at play in climate litigation, I plan to next examine the skills, competences, and knowledge that different types of lawyers (not only attorneys, but also in-house counsels and government lawyers) can mobilise, both in their contentious and non-contentious legal practice, to address the many legal disruptions caused by a continuously rising risk of more frequent and higher-impact climate change-induced extreme events in Japan. This phase of the research will imply additional interviews and trial/practice observations, as well as the organization of a series of workshops involving practicing lawyers and (legal) scholars; 2) Through the organisation of/participation into mock trials and judgment projects involving students from different universities (in and outside Japan), I will also start exploring how interdisciplinary teaching and learning frameworks can enrich "climate crisis lawyering" praxis and theory.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
My main research expenses during the fiscal year in question will be those stemming from conducting additional fieldwork, planning several domestic research trips, and organizing a series of workshops.
|
