Acceso usuarios
Paolo Mazzotti
The transnational movement of climate activists is resorting increasingly often to acts of civil disobe-dience. Upon being prosecuted for those acts, climate activists across various jurisdictions are startingto plead the general criminal law defence of necessity. The present article takes the cases in whichthat defence was pleaded before Swiss courts as a case study to analyse the legal questions raised bythe‘climate necessity defence’, conceptualised as an instance of climate litigation. The article hencesituates the Swiss cases within a broader framework, trying to draw interpretive insights from interna-tional environmental law and climate science, as well as the transnational case-law on the climatenecessity defence. The article's overarching submission is that a broad interpretation of the defence,tending towards accepting its applicability, is more in line with the current legal thinking on environ-mental matters than a restrictive interpretation rejectingaprioriclimate necessity claims.
