Corporate Climate Litigation and Environmental Justice: How Green Amendments Can be Used to Advance Accountability and Equity

Authors

Noah Hines, Indiana University Maurer School of LawFollow

Abstract

The term “Green Amendment” was first coined by author Maya van Rossum in her 2017 book The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment, in which she argues that modern environmental protection laws are fundamentally failing the most vulnerable people in society and proposes the creation of new constitutional rights as a solution. The provisions van Rossum argues ought to be added to state constitutions as “Green Amendments” are also sometimes called “Environmental Rights Amendments,” and generally enumerate the right of all citizens to a clean or healthy environment. Green Amendments currently exist in Pennsylvania, Montana, Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. This Note will explain how those provisions have already changed the landscape of corporate and environmental law in those states while proposing that enacting more Green Amendments will reinforce those changes.

Specifically, this Note will focus on the current and potential future impact of Green Amendments on corporate climate liability litigation—particularly litigation involving large corporations that operate in multiple states—and on how Green Amendments advance environmental justice. Today, large corporations bear the bulk of responsibility for human-caused climate change and historically underserved populations bear the bulk of climate change’s harmful consequences. Constitutional provisions that enumerate a fundamental right to a clean environment therefore have potential to provide an opportunity for states to better protect those in vulnerable positions against the environmental damages caused by large corporations.

Part I will provide a brief overview of existing Green Amendments, their current role in the intersection of environmental law and corporate litigation, and the shortcomings of enacted Green Amendments in the context of environmental injustice. Part II will discuss the potential impact that more widespread adoption of Green Amendments could have on such litigation, and how such adoption could alter this legal landscape both directly and indirectly. The Conclusion will explain why Green Amendments that hold corporate polluters accountable are a powerful means of addressing environmental injustice.

Recommended Citation

12 Ind. J. L. & Soc. Equal. 55